We’ve all been exposed to similar dress codes since early middle school: shorts and skirts must reach fingertip length, no parts of a chest or stomach is to be exposed, and God forbid girls wear a tank top and reveal their bare shoulders.

However, while Algonquin students are lucky enough to be in a high school with an extremely lenient dress code, this is far from the norm of high schools throughout the country, which leaves me with one question: Why?

Strict high schools such as Apopka High School in Florida actively take part in heavily enforcing dress codes mentioned. The school’s student handbook reads, “If a student is in violation of the dress code, they may not attend classes that day.”

The strict dress code at that school seems to be doing more harm than good. Students are getting sent home and missing classes all because someone can see their shoulder, and that is seen as distracting to fellow classmates. To me, this seems extremely ridiculous.

The way an individual dresses is a form of self expression and a way to show who that person is, so why would high schools around the country try and censor that? While yes, some clothing is deemed as to inappropriate for school, such as overly short skirts, shorts, and completely exposed chest and stomach, some dress code requirements are unnecessary and extremely demeaning.

Another problem is that school dress codes primarily concern female students. Common dress codes prohibit a girl’s shoulders to be seen; in some schools, the students’ knees, collar bones and any part of their stomach or chest are also expected to be covered. Most of these restrictions do not apply to male fashion.

The reasons high schools give for enforcing this dress code is so the female students are not seen as “distracting” to others students. In this case, the “other students” are commonly only the male students in the schools.

As a result of these gender-biased codes, school administrators are teaching young girls to cover up nonsexual parts of their body and to censor a very important form of self expression in order to not distract fellow male students.

To me, this is completely backwards. It is the male students that should be taught not oversexualize parts of the female body. I have shoulders and knees and collarbones and a belly button. Everyone does. These body parts are in no way sexual and should not be seen as such.

Girls should be taught to love their bodies and to show the world that they are proud to live in the skin that they do. Never should they be told to cover up their bodies or change their appearance in order for a male to not look at them in a sexual way.

Enforcing such strict dress codes ultimately does the opposite from keeping students focused. Female students are so concerned about what they are wearing that they may not be able to focus in class.

Instead of heavily enforced unrealistic dress codes, everyone involved in school systems across the country should be accepting of all forms of self expression, and should allow girls, as well as boys, to wear what they want, how they want, any day, everyday.