<p>Hello, HSL. I’ve only been on here intermittently, but I figured this would be the best place to ask.</p>
<p>Recently, our school’s student government was delegated the task of suggesting an alternative to the fingertip rule. For those who don’t know, the fingertip rule is a way of enforcing the dress code. If a girl is wearing shorts that don’t extend past her fingertips, it’s considered a violation.</p>
<p>Obviously, this isn’t the best way to do things, and school admin agrees. Not even accounting for such things as genetic differences in arm length, the rule is just difficult to enforce. A teacher needing to confront a girl to check her shorts’ length by this method is awkward for all parties involved. School admin is rightfully concerned that because this rule is seldom followed, the slippery slope effect will ensue.</p>
<p>HSL, what are some of your ideas? Please keep it clean, but don’t be afraid to speak out.</p>
<p>My school forces you to change into a long skirt that goes to your ankles if your skirt is too short. Girls generally know if their skirt is too short for school, they just choose to ignore the rule. I feel like what my school does is a suitable alternative lol</p>
<p>The vice principal of our school actually came into my class, seeking me out, when I was wearing shorts at least two inches past my finger tips. She actually pulled me out of class, and it was ridiculously embarrassing. This is also the same lady that got me in trouble for wearing gloves inside when I had just come in off the bus when it was snowing and under thirty degrees.</p>
<p>I think there is a blatant difference of shorter shorts and sluttier shorts. </p>
<p>What if you’re not allowed to wear shorts that are skin tight around your thighs? This doesn’t mean they can’t be form fitting, but if your legs as squeezed in the shorts, maybe you shouldn’t be wearing them. Of course, that could easily be awkward to judge, but of all the “inappropriate” shorts at my school, that is the one thing they have in common.</p>
<p>Maybe it wouldn’t work as the only rule, but it definitely could work.</p>
<p>School dress codes are so useful! If my school didn’t have arbitrary rules about ‘appropriateness’, I would lose control of my higher level reasoning and brutally rape all the girls wearing shorts above their knees!</p>
<p>Why? I don’t know! But I definitely need these rules in place, because my raping sprees would be sure to distract the learning environment.</p>
<p>Our public high school went from finger tip to middle of the knee. They hoped everyone would just switch to wearing jeans/pants. In south Florida, in August. It went right along with shirts/tops that had to be crew collar, as in T-shirt high (not scoop neck, not V-neck.) or full collar. With no writing, no print, nothing. Just solid colors. Glad my kids graduated.</p>
<p>My school says that it uses the fingertip rule, but the teachers and administrators will only report people if they’re shorts/skirts look revealing or suggestive.</p>
<p>^^That’s terrible, they should just give you all a uniform so that at least there can a teensy bit of glamor in it. Screw them! Only some people can look good in those high-necked crew collars, **** that *<strong><em>! *</em></strong> it!</p>
<p>my school has a strict uniform and when we have free dress days girls aren’t allowed to wear shorts and skirts can only be 4 inches above the knee</p>
<p>While I respect your opinion, this really isn’t what we’re going for at all.</p>
<p>Think about it. Just the fact that school admin was willing to appeal to student government on an issue like this is pretty cool. It gives students and admin the chance to come up with something appropriate, non-distracting, and not too restrictive. It will foster some amount of trust between the two aforementioned parties.</p>
<p>That said, for better or worse, school uniforms are out of the picture. I liked the suggestion to limit the really form-fitting stuff. That, in conjunction with something else (perhaps length from the knee?), could make for a decent rule.</p>
<p>The rule I’ve seen (though usually with skirts) is that they cannot be more than a credit card’s length above the knee. That may set the bar higher (or lower, in this case, so punny) but you can have a little more leeway with it since you can’t expect the girls to measure their skirts/shorts every morning as they get ready. </p>
<p>Alternatively, your school can just make the rule something like “Shorts and skirts should be modest and in good taste; final decisions of these criteria will be dictated by the [whoever’s in charge of this kind of thing]”. That way you don’t have to go around worrying about exact lengths but instead what looks ok and what is definitely out of line, and that last clause of the rule would damper all the “good taste is relative!” arguments.</p>
<p>But seriously, I think there should just be a dress code honor code. Like, actual length doesn’t matter but if it’s obviously just trashy then it’s punishable. Let’s use common sense and not arbitrary rules.</p>
<p>The problem with having teachers/administrators decide is that what looks trashy on some people looks nice on others. There would obviously be a lot of variation based on attractiveness, race, height, etc. </p>
<p>Plus a lot of teachers(almost all the male teachers at my school) ignore the dress code, at least regarding skirts/shorts.</p>
<p>The funny thing is that at my school, the dance team’s uniform skirts are TINY(way above fingertip, more like wrist length). Girls on the dance team can wear their uniforms in class on game days and everything too. But I guess it’s designed that way to attract attention at football games.</p>
<p>My AP teacher (28, female) would make the girls stand in front of the class, rotate 360*, and judging by the guys reaction, she would make her decision. It was supposed to be a funny thing though, she never embarrassed anyone or anything.</p>
I think</p>