Andy Kimball
Junior Editor
Dress code changes now allow students to wear stocking caps and beanies. However, students still aren’t allowed to wear any sort of billed hats.
Billed caps should be allowed in the dress code because students should have freedom to wear any sort of clothing that is not a distraction in class.
According to principal Jon Clark, this is because the high school wants to be able to see students’ eyes to identify them.
Clark said, “(Billed-hats) were probably allowed 18 years ago, and we outlawed them for a couple of reasons. One is that they were gang related in the past. They aren’t now. We have always believed kids wearing hats didn’t shower or clean themselves before class… A third reason, and probably the biggest reason now, is that we can’t see kid’s eyes, and we want to build a situation where students can see eyes.”
Clark added, “Sometimes (when student’s eyes can’t be seen) students could be cheating on a test. Sometimes we want to recognize them to make sure they are in the building and to see who they are, so that probably is the main reason now.”
First, someone could wear any type of hat and use that as an excuse not to clean themselves before class.
Second, outlawing billed caps to stop cheating has not worked to stop cheating. This year the ECHO conducted a survey that found that over 30 percent of students have cheated over the past year. This shows that there is still cheating in the high school and getting rid of billed caps has not stopped this.
Third, being able to identify students while they are wearing billed hats is very simple. It involves a task that many students and staff who attend the high school can accomplish.
Faculty can simply ask the student his/her name or ask them to briefly remove the cap. Also, if wearing the cap over their face becomes a problem, then one can ask a student to adjust the cap on his/her head to make them easier to identify.
Also this is only in the case that a student wears a cap over his eyes. Many students wear caps that are above their eyes and show their eyes and face clearly. And if hats are worn backwards, then a student’s face is clearly shown and identifying the student is not an issue.
The next change that needs to be made to the dress code is getting rid of the ban on billed caps.
The only restriction that should be made is that the hat should be taken off if it has any vulgar themes that distract students in school.
