'Buttocks, full torsos will be showing' principal says of TUSD dress code change

Rules stating that see-through items of clothing are not permitted and undergarments must be covered remain intact in the revision. But this language would be struck: “Clothing must cover the chest and torso, and must cover buttocks while standing and sitting.”

Tucson Magnet High School Principal Elizabeth Rivera was among members of the public submitting comments about the proposal and she said that line should remain intact.

“Students were wearing bikini tops and cut off shorts so extremely short to school that only covered private areas. Buttocks and full torsos will be showing with this revision,” Rivera wrote to the TUSD Governing Board, which is scheduled to vote on the change at its 5:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Feb. 13.

Rivera also stated that girls are wearing bralettes as tops and other undergarments as regular clothing. “We have had a student wear her string bikini thong under a pair of regular brief underwear to school with a silk lingerie top claiming her briefs were her bottoms and her underwear was underneath,” the principal wrote.

Faculty: Unfairly enforced for girls

A sampling of students indicated most do not feel the current dress code is fairly enforced for all genders, the TUSD Student Relations Department told the board in a November presentation.

Stakeholder feedback included more than 1,800 TUSD students from every high school and select middle schools.

Also, the majority of TUSD faculty and staff consulted felt uncomfortable enforcing the current dress code, the department told the board. Additionally, the faculty surveyed indicated the dress code has been unfairly enforced for girls.

TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo told the board in November that’s a sentiment he’s heard districtwide, particularly from male faculty and staff members.

“That’s created an overcompensation on the part of the female staff members to pick up that slack. You see females more generally dress-coded because a lot of that contact is female administrator, female teacher to female students, which creates the perception that there’s this, there’s an inequity, in terms of enforcement,” Trujillo said.

“The evening out of this language, as it’s proposed here, I think is going to go a long way in really addressing this overcompensation issue,” he added. “It’s going to make everybody more competent in taking on issues of dress so that we don’t have a single segment of our workforce carrying the burden of enforcement.”

‘Shouldn’t be policing our students’

From the board’s perspective, it’s about developing enforceable policy, then board-president Ravi Shah said in November when the board moved the revisions forward.

Four of the board members have daughters in TUSD schools, Shah noted.

“I don’t think any of us would want them to go to school, not professionally dressed or dressed in an inappropriate manner. But the question is, do we want to have a policy that isn’t enforceable? Do we want to have a policy that’s useless because it’s not enforceable?” he said.

Board member Jennifer Eckstrom said, “We need to be very thoughtful in how we address this. I think by saying that clothing must cover the undergarments, that’s good enough. We shouldn’t be policing our students. If they’re there to learn, then they’re there to learn.

“We need to stop making policy on the backs of these girls. We should not be singling them out. It’s the wrong thing to do.”

Shah said, “It’s not about us saying, ‘It’s okay, everyone go to school in a crop top.’ We’re not saying that. I don’t think any of us believe that’s appropriate, but our goal is to see what a policy is going to be in terms of what’s enforced.”

Rivera wrote: “Crop tops are okay for school, but lingerie and bikinis are not. Kids will take it to the extreme if it is not clearly defined. We were able to successfully enforce the dress code at THMS this year with the current policy that is in place.”

A standard does need to be set, board member Sadie Shaw said in November.

“Anywhere you go in this world, there’s standard code of dress, whether it’s written or unwritten, whether it’s school, work, weddings, funerals, going to court … there’s a standard and to say that we don’t have a standard at our public schools I think is wrong.”

Schools can develop own

Revisions also include adjusting policy on head- and eyewear and making it easier for schools to propose their own dress codes.

There is a degree of local control for TUSD schools. Under the revised policy, it could be easier for district schools to implement a school uniform or standardized dress code, should that policy be approved by the district Governing Board.

That process is led by a school’s council. In the event a school wishes to develop its own uniform or standardized code, the School Council must gather “broad public comments,” then develop a code based on the fundamentals of the district dress code.

To advance, a school’s code must be voted on by parents/guardians, receive 60% or more approval, and be presented to and approved by the TUSD Governing Board.