Dress codes are enforced to provide students a better learning environment. They not only ensure a safe, comfortable educational environment for all, but teach students that different places require different, situation-appropriate attire. 

However, many girls — not only at ASIJ, but all over the globe — strongly oppose dress codes. Firstly, teenage female fashion trends conflict with many dress code rules, making it difficult to dress for school. Furthermore, it is sometimes male teachers who alert females to dress code violations. This can be embarrassing and create highly uncomfortable situations. Despite these objections, it is still generally accepted that dress codes exist to ensure a safe, protected community for schools. 

But at ASIJ, the dress code is fundamentally flawed, because the school fails to follow its own policies. For example, the ASIJ Handbook states, “The priority will be for [dress code conversations] to take place privately, away from other students, such as in the counseling area or administration office.” Despite this. students are “dress-coded” in public all the time. In the middle of class, the halls between class, and even on the field — for the entire high school to watch. The school is plainly disobeying its own rule, which is supposed to prevent any dress-coded students from feeling embarrassed.

The next line of the handbook reads, “Similarly, efforts will be made to have female students spoken to by female staff members, and male students spoken to by male staff members.” It is interesting to note that the handbook says “efforts.” This means that the policy’s enforcement is not guaranteed. 

I believe that ASIJ has exploited this loophole. Personally, I have only been dress-coded by a male teacher. This has also been the case for many other girls at ASIJ. For instance, a Grade 9 friend of mine (who has chosen to remain anonymous) says of her three years at ASIJ, “I have only been dress -coded a few times at ASIJ. But every time I have been dress-coded, it has been by a man.” It appears that ASIJ puts minimal effort into having female teachers dress-code female students. The dress code should guarantee this measure, rather than promising mere “efforts.”

The ASIJ dress code was made to ensure that students and faculty could thrive in a comfortable learning environment. But no female student will ever feel comfortable when teachers publicly tell them that their clothing is inappropriate (especially in front of their peers or friends). No female student will ever feel safe, when faculty members with more power lecture them on their clothes. 

How can ASIJ tell students to follow its Handbook, when the school itself does not require the same from staff and faculty? The school has a plan to deal with situations when the dress code is broken. But the problem is that the school doesn’t follow the plan itself.