Wake is working on a new student dress code for schools. Will it be more ‘lenient?’

Wake County’s student dress code is getting a revision, but it’s unclear whether the potential changes will result in students getting more freedom in what they wear to school.

Wake County school administrators on Tuesday presented the introductory wording for a new student dress code policy that says students are expected to dress appropriately for school. But officials said they want more feedback from principals before they fill out the details of how the new policy would be implemented for Wake’s 162,000 students.

“We feel like it’s one of those things better to go slow than to go fast,” Kathryn Chontos, interim assistant superintendent for student support services, told a school board committee Tuesday.

The elephant in the room is whether the new policy will result in students being allowed to wear things they’re not permitted to don now, such as short shorts and strapless shirts. School board member Roxie Cash said she wanted to know how lenient the new policy would be, citing concerns she’s heard from some in the community.

“I don’t want to be overly lenient in the dress code,” Cash said in an interview after Tuesday’s meeting.

School board member Bill Fletcher answered that those details would have to be sorted out. If a new dress code is adopted, the goal would be to get it in place for the 2019-20 school year.

Board vice chairman Jim Martin, who chairs the policy committee, added that the goal is not about being lenient but about setting expectations for students.

“What is lenient to you may not be lenient to me,” Martin told Cash. “This is the complexity of ‘the us’ of public schools vs. ‘the me’ of public schools.”

Leaders of North Carolina’s largest school system are balancing trying to make the dress code gender neutral and culturally appropriate without also being accused of being too permissive.

Wake changed the Code of Student Conduct in 2002 to include 11 examples of items that are considered inappropriate, including exposed undergarments, sagging pants, excessively short or tight garments, bare-midriff tops, strapless shirts and attire that exposes cleavage.

But over the past 16 years, there’s been debate about how the dress code is enforced, especially because many of the items seem to apply more to female students than male students.

At the urging of school board member Lindsay Mahaffey, Wake administrators have been looking at the dress code used by Portland Public Schools in Oregon. Portland’s policy is focused more on what students are expected to wear as opposed to what’s prohibited.

Chontos said staff used the Portland policy to frame the introduction for Wake’s proposed new dress code policy. Wake’s proposed policy talks about students wearing clothing that is “compatible with an effective learning environment” and that parents are asked to monitor students’ attire to help ensure a positive learning environment.

The policy says its guiding principles for the student dress code are similar to those experienced and expected in the workplace. The policy says students should wear attire “that furthers health and safety of students and staff, enables the educational process, and facilitates the operation of the school.”

“I fully expect that we will have a great diversity of opinion about how ‘compatible with a learning environment’ will be expressed,” Fletcher said. “But I do think this is an appropriate level of expectation, and we owe it to our community to put forward a level of expectation.”

The policy says students shouldn’t be excluded from class or school-related activity due to their attire unless the clothing poses a threat to the health or safety of others or is “reasonably likely to create a substantial disruption of the educational process or operation of the school.”

The policy says that any request to change a student’s attire should minimize the potential loss of instructional time for the student.

While Cash, the board member, voiced concerns she’s heard in the community about potential changes, Martin said he’s hearing positive things.

“I’m hearing good vibes from the community that students are optimistic that we are moving to a better place,” Martin said.

This story was originally published August 28, 2018 at 7:22 PM.