School Dress Codes: First Amendment Violation or Not?
- Cassidy White
- Jul 7, 2019
- 2 min read
While the Supreme Court has never said anything specific about dress codes, this seems to be a huge controversy among schools. Most schools will ban gang colors and signs, have a strict rule on how long woman’s skirts and shorts can be, workout clothes, midriff, bare shoulders and other profane content. Schools have the option to force students to wear uniforms.
Taking it a step further, some schools require girls to “look presentable”. Most of the time, this consists of hair being done and looking nice and applying make-up to the face. For men, hair must be shorter than a specific length, a specific brand or color of shoe must be worn and a tie.
It is not illegal for schools to impose their own dress code or uniforms. However, it is against the law for the school to sensor a student’s expression. Title IX and the Constitution’s equal protection do not allow schools to base a dress code off of sex stereotypes. For example, a dress code can’t deny boys the right to wear a skirt if the individual pleases. It is also illegal for a school to enforce a dress code that targets a specific group of students. If this happened, the school would be violating laws that prohibited race and sex discrimination.
The First Amendment doesn’t allow schools the right to choose which views the students are allowed to express. For example, if a school doesn’t allow a t-shirt with a slogan on it, no matter if the slogan is sexist or contains a bible verse, the school can’t allow it.
In a court case, Canady vs. Bossier Parish School Board, the court ruled that there was no violation to the First Amendment. The Hicks vs. Halifax Board of Education case and Littlefield vs. Forney Independent School District case are just two other cases that the court ruled there were no violations to the First Amendment.
Do you think required school dress codes violate your First Amendments?
Sources:
コメント