At East Rock School, students are required students to come in uniforms, yet there is also a dress code (despite there being a uniform). This can be very confusing. Many teachers at East Rock tell students that uniforms are “a must” and have to be worn or there will be consequences. But some students have been “dress-coded” because their clothes were “inappropriate” for school settings. For example, teachers threaten that students will not be able to attend field trips if uniforms are not worn, yet students still attend the field trip even if the uniform is not worn. A fifth-grade teacher stopped a student in the line a few days before the field trip and talked about how it wasn’t school uniform. But for the fifth grade, they wear a shirt saying “EAST ROCK 5TH GRADE” for their safety. But students in front and behind this student were violating the uniform by not wearing it. The teachers seem to pick out the students who they think need discipline. This method of disciplining students is unfair.
The dress code for East Rock is, strictly, NO jeans, NO cropped shirts and NO colorful sweaters. But yet only few students get dress-coded for these rules. Students at East Rock mainly don’t wear uniforms until a teacher points it out, and most of the time, the student wears the uniform the next day, then wears regular clothes the following day. The inconsistent enforcement of the dress code has caused students to completely disregard the dress code.
Many East Rock students don’t follow either the dress code or uniform, and only a small percentage of schools in America have uniforms. If East Rock must pick between no uniform and a highly-enforced dress code or a highly-enforced uniform and no dress code they should pick to have no uniform because it would be easier and cheaper for a lot of families to not have to buy uniforms before the school year starts.
However, the school doesn’t enforce dress codes and the uniform as much as they should, which confuses everyone and causes students to get in trouble. If East Rock is going to have a dress code and a uniform and not enforce any of them, that makes them both useless and a waste of money for parents. In addition, there’s no point for them if they are poorly enforced: it should be enforced consistently or completely removed in general.
