The uniform issue is deeper than colors
Photo Credit: Janel Paredes
December 6, 2022
“You’re not in uniform!” I heard as I looked down at my outfit; a green shirt that my mother had JUST bought from the uniform distributor and khaki pants. It was the same shirt I had been wearing every week for the past year, yet somehow that day, I was being penalized for it. “It’s not uniform, the handbook said so.” Realistically, who even reads the handbook? It’s sold on our uniform website, so we’re going to wear it.
Plucking students out of class and flooding classrooms with students who have in
school suspension has been the only solution for those who are wearing anything but the green collared shirt. All of the shirts and sweatshirts sold on the website have our school logo and name on it. At the end of the day, we can still be identified as a UACHS student. UACHS freshman, Angelina Suarez, believes in-school suspension is not the way to go when penalizing students.
“I really think we should just be able to wear whatever we want that is sold on the school website,” said Suarez. “Let’s be honest, what is suspension going to do for that kid? Nothing. It’s better to just let the kids rent the uniform.”
Another pressing issue with the uniform is the fact that we must wear khaki pants. As young women, we struggle with a uniform issue most men don’t. We don’t always know when it is coming and we can’t control our menstruation. Sophomore, Samantha Bautista, believes that females should be able to wear black pants.
“We could still wear black pants and give off a ‘professional’ vibe. A lot of professional outfits in the real world have black pants,” Bautista said. “On top of that, girls can have menstruation and it will bleed through. How ‘professional’ would that look then?”
The uniform issue clearly goes deeper than just the suspensions and neutral tones. Isn’t the whole point of being a student to get an education? Missing classes over shirts and constantly being pulled out of class over the color of your pants is unnecessary. At some point it would be wise to redress the dress code.