by Giselle Galarza

The school’s casual day Jan. 10, considered a “trial” by administrators to give students a chance to clean up their act, played out smoothly according to students. The most recent casual day Feb. 7 also went well, according to administrators.

Junior Kwesi Owusu said the second casual day brought out more “improvement” in the students than the first trial day.

“The behavior was a lot better than the first one. There was less trouble and the students dressed appropriately again,” Owusu said.

The students’ “good behavior” on Jan. 10 was enough to bring a second casual day to the school, according to detention coordinator Daisy Rodriguez.

“I think it went very well,” Rodriguez said. “Everyone was dressed appropriately, even the young ladies.”

The boys still have something to work on correcting, according to Rodriguez.

“Only thing was of course the boys’ pants sagging,” Rodriguez said.

Dean Erie Lugo agreed to meet with the student council after cancelling any future “dress downs” in November.

“I said that the reason for these days being cancelled was the students messing up,” Lugo said. “The student council implemented ideas since this was a student issue.”

Lugo agreed to the trial day after meeting with student council president Freddie Posey and sophomore representative Tatyana Reed; however, Lugo said he isn’t able to create a judgement of his own on the Jan. 10 trial day.

“I was sick. I haven’t had a conversation with the administration on how it went so far,” Lugo said. “I haven’t had any negative reports.”

The trial day not only affected the way students dressed but also their behavior, according to sophomore Latia Randolph.

“There were no fights or people dressing inappropriately, plus I think students were happy about being able to wear their new clothes and sneakers they got for Christmas,” Randolph said.

Sophomore Juana Turner said she applauds students for following rules and actually dressing casual.

“There were no people wearing anything crazy or something too tight,” Turner said.

Turner said casual days are an outlet to “express” herself and be comfortable in her own clothing.

“I also like being able to throw on anything I want,” Turner said.

What were known as “dress down days” sent out “negative” signals to students, according to Lugo. The new title, “casual day,” is more likely to set an appropriate message to students, Lugo said.

“The title ‘dress down’ has a negative connotation, so we changed the name to casual days,” Lugo said. “Also, we created a banned list, so that students who misbehave or don’t maintain the dress code on dress downs won’t be able to dress down next dress down.”

Posey said students will choose to behave or not during casual days.

“They know what’s gonna happen. Lugo already told them. They know the consequences if they play around,” sophomore Posey said.

Students can all work together if they really want something, according to freshman Cindy Vo.

“I think the casual day went really well; they wanted to have more so they did well,” Vo said.

Although the trial day went well for the students, freshman Aaliyah Cruz said the most recent casual day showed more improvement than the last one.

“They did really well this time,” Cruz said. “I think it was flawless, and they improved from the last casual day we had.”

Reed said that students will “act up,” but she knows how to bring them back into shape.

“If you remind them to keep behaving in order to keep the casual days, then they’ll probably simmer down,” Reed said.

Reed said that Lugo agreed to the trial after they proposed ideas to make casual days better.

“We just set rules about what kids could wear, changed the day to a more mellow day since Friday is a crazy day, and changed the name.”

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