Rights of Students Regarding the Dress Code

In the week of March 7, the dress code became a contentious topic at Pyle Middle School. This article will hopefully answer your question as to what is the extent of your rights at school. Students are granted certain constitutional rights while in school. In fact, the Supreme Court has ruled that students are allowed to pick their clothing up until the point where it “involves substantial disorder” and that the school’s fear of a disruption is not sufficient reason to ban types of clothing. To ban a type of clothing, either an incident involving the type of clothing must have happened in the school or there must be sufficient evidence that an incident will happen in the foreseeable future at the school.

Students are minors and are entrusted by their parents to the school and by extension the administration. Thus, by in loco parentis, the school has the responsibility to act as a parent to the students. As a legal guardian, the school has the ability to regulate what students wear on school premises. However, as established in 1943 in the Supreme Court case West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, students do have rights in schools as schools are an extension of our government and thus can not deny constitutional rights.

Another important Supreme Court case is Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Justice Fortas delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court in saying, “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, school official became aware the students would be wearing clothing that the administration thought would be disruptive to the school and adopted a policy to ban the clothing. The students refused to listen and were suspended and later sued the school.) It was in this case the Supreme Court ruled that freedom of clothing is protected under the First Amendment (Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise; or abridging the freedom of speech...), arguing both that your choice of clothing is “symbolic speech,” which might reflect your beliefs on any subject, religious or political.

However, the Supreme Court also added that there is a point at which student clothing may be suppressed, because of it being disruptive and detrimental to the running of the schools. Using the “Tinker” test, the administration can ban clothing if it “disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others.” The schools “apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression.”

In summary, students are allowed to enjoy their constitutional rights in school up to the point where their expression of those rights becomes an impediment to the running of the school, as determined by the administration of the school. If a student truly feels as though they wronged by an unlawful policy, then there are options available beyond accepting the school’s position. One such path to recourse is to petition the school to change the school dress code or to request an apology for how students were reminded of the dress code. Also students could take their grievances to a court of law, seeking compensation and an injunction against the policy, as done in the Tinker case. However, students at Pyle must remember that the administration does have the power to regulate the student body and that their policies and regulations must be followed.

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