High school dress codes fashioned by tradition, style

WILMINGTON, Del. (The Dialog) - Take a look at the high school dress codes of the 21st century; they include a lot more concerns than the lengths of young people's skirts and hair.

Among those rules are: - Tattoos must be completely covered during school and while students participate in athletic contests. - A student may wear no more than two earrings per ear. - Nose jewelry, tongue studs, etc., are not allowed. Any parent encountering those rules - all found in current student handbooks of Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Wilmington - might only ask, "tongue studs, etc.? What could that 'et cetera' be? If teenage trends have pushed the hot-button concerns of dress codes away from clothes and toward body art, the overall goal of Catholic schools' rules remains "appropriateness and modesty," according to Gene Alessandrini, assistant principal of student affairs at St. Mark's High School, Wilmington. Alessandrini has had student-discipline duties at St. Mark's since 1973, so he's seen a lot of fashions deemed in and out of style - skirts rolled, hems cut and sideburns grown up and down. "Styles have changed and we've tried to adjust to them," Alessandrini said. "Sometimes we've offered a lot of options. Lately there are fewer options; the more options, the more you have to adjust to them." A perennial problem has been the lengths of girls' skirts, said Alessandrini. Skirts at St. Mark's can't be more than two inches above the knees, but one way the school has adjusted to the hem wars, he said, has been to require the girls to wear gray or hunter green tights, so when the skirt is a little shorter "it isn't that recognizable. It almost looks like one piece." Whatever its length, a skirt is optional for girls at St. Mark's; they can opt to wear slacks that must be purchased from Rush Uniform. The hip-hugger slacks that appeared on occasion forced St. Mark's to stipulate a supplier. "It's a matter of keeping one step ahead or no more than one step behind," Alessandrini said. "There's still that choice. Some schools have eliminated the skirts totally. We're still holding ground." A "uniform committee" of faculty, parents and students at St. Elizabeth High School in Wilmington decided to do away with a skirt as part of a girl's uniform in favor of pants that feature a St. E's logo on a pocket, said John Petruzzelli, assistant principal. "If you would talk to our girls, it's just more comfortable; they prefer the pants over the skirts," he said. Shirley Bounds, St. Elizabeth's principal, said neither students, faculty members nor administrators wanted to start each day with a battle over skirt lengths. St. Elizabeth, like other Catholic schools, prohibits extreme hairstyles on its students. In its dress code the administration "maintains the prerogative to determine the suitability of any individual's appearance, including clothing, accessories and hairstyle." That's from head to toe of course, and any reader of St. Elizabeth's rules will know that shoe styles have drawn students' challenges. "Both ladies and gentlemen," the code states, "must wear solid black dress shoes with no stripes or distinctive markings or emblems. (Gray is NOT black.)" Similar shoe business also resulted in a dress-code footnote at St. Mark's, Alessandrini said. The Spartan students "must wear a loafer, oxford or Docker-style shoe with closed toe and heel," the dress code said. But after receiving assurances from a school nurse that open-backed footwear would be OK for students, "We allowed them, two or three years ago, to wear Birkenstocks," the assistant principal recalled. "We found ourselves dealing with different colored shoes, checkered shoes, blues and reds." The school soon stipulated that all shoes had to be either black or some shade of brown. Some of the Birkenstocks were even furry, which also got officials' attention. "They don't want us wearing slippers," said Sarah Brazen, a St. Mark's senior. Brazen and Gabby Serio, a junior, agreed the dress code is comfortable and not bothersome. "The only thing I get tired of is wearing tights," Serio said. Long tradition of uniforms If Catholic high schools' dress codes will always be subjected to both painstaking and surprising interpretations, uniforms remain synonymous with Catholic schools, Alessandrini said. "They're pretty much what all Catholic schools have done over the course of time." Students dressed in a shirt and tie "are less likely to get involved in horseplay than in a T-shirt and jeans. They're dressed for business, for school, which is their business at this time in life." "The kids appreciate it later in life when they recognize it's a lot easier to wake up in the morning and know what you're going to wear," Alessandrini added. Petruzzelli agreed that St. Elizabeth's dress code makes life easier for both parents and students, who don't have to worry about what everyone else is wearing. He recalled working at a Catholic high school in Philadelphia on dress-down days. "It was full-moon days; it was just insanity," he said. "The uniform in my opinion is the way to go." St. Elizabeth students "have really been good with the dress code," Petruzzelli said. "By the end of the day you might see some kids untucked," but "97 percent of them you never have to say a word to." Allie Renai, a St. Elizabeth's junior, likes wearing the slacks from Campus Outfitters that the school requires instead of skirts. "I didn't really like wearing skirts; the slacks are more comfortable," she said. She also likes the banded white polo shirt with the St. Elizabeth's emblem the girls wear. "You don't have to tuck your shirt in," she said. Pat O'Connor, also a St. E's junior, enjoys the white polo shirt that's tucked into khakis that comprise the boy's summer uniform. From October until April, the boys wear pastel shirts with ties and a maroon St. Elizabeth's sweater. "I think everybody's fine with the shirt and tie," O'Connor said of his classmates. Some days at St. Elizabeth's are designated for a Viking-casual style of dress. Students can wear jeans and school-related Tshirts, such as sports apparel or T-shirts from school organizations, such as an honors society shirt or yearbook T-shirt. O'Connor wears a basketball shirt. Renai's Viking casual choice is a volleyball shirt, especially since she's been named captain of the school's team. St. Mark's Serio admits she "probably would have to wake up a lot earlier," if she had to pick out what clothes she would wear to school each day. Serio and Brazen said girls tend to accessorize to show their individuality in a girl's uniform of a skirt with tights or slacks. Ninth- and tenth-grade girls are required to wear a school sweater and oxford shirt in the winter and a golf shirt in the fall and summer. Eleventh- and 12th-grade girls have the option to wear a school blazer in the winter. "Some girls go all out in the morning with their makeup and hair," Serio said. But "You can always dress up on the weekend," added Brazen. Nithin Paul, a senior, said St. Mark's boys tend to use ties to make a personal statement. A tie, a hunter green or navy sport coat, with khaki or gray dress- or Docker-styled slacks are also required in winter; the golf shirt with the St. Mark's emblem is the fall and spring look for guys. St. Mark's dress code stipulates that boys must wear socks and a belt. Paul recalled a St. Mark's student who once donned a belt that flashed a digital message. It was a unique way of keeping his pants up for the day - but it didn't meet the dress code. - - - Joseph Ryan is the assistant editor of The Dialog.

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This story was made available to Catholic Online by permission of The Dialog (www.cdow.org), the official newspaper of the Diocese of Wilmington, Del.