Evanston Township High School, an Illinois high school, has overhauled their dress code to “promote body-positivity and self-expression.” According to the school, the new dress code is 100% gender-neutral and allows clothing that was previously banned, such as leggings and tank tops.
Evanston Township High School’s new dress code, which will take effect this fall semester, now allows hoodies, hats and spaghetti straps as permitted clothing. Furthermore, the dress code specifically points out that “fitted pants, including opaque leggings, yoga pants and skinny jeans’ are fine to be worn by students of any gender.”
Similarly, staff members at Evanston Township High School are being trained to explain the rules with “a body-positive tone” and are “no longer allowed to shame students by measuring their straps or skirt lengths, or accusing them of distracting others with their clothing.”
via Evanston Township High School:
Evanston Township High School’s student dress code (Section 11 in The Pilot handbook) supports equitable educational access and is written in a manner that does not reinforce stereotypes and that does not reinforce or increase marginalization or oppression of any group based on race, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, cultural observance, household income or body type/size.
The student dress code supports our goal of inspiring students to learn while leaving primary decisions around student clothing and style to students and their parent(s)/guardian(s). Our expectation is that parents and guardians are responsible for ensuring student compliance with the school’s dress code, and students are responsible for knowing the student dress code and for complying during school hours and school activities. Acknowledgement is given to the Oregon NOW Model Student Dress Code creators for developing the language that inspires our current dress code.
According to TODAY, Evanston Township High School says that the new dress code was written so that it does not “reinforce stereotypes and does not reinforce or increase marginalization or oppression of any group based on race, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, cultural observance, household income or body type/size.”
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