Long Beach, CA – Throughout the school year, staff has enforced the dress code on and off again. Some weeks the people standing at the gates do not bat an eye when people come in wearing non-uniform colors, other weeks they make someone change their clothes for having a singular black stripe on their shirt. The fact that the level of enforcement of dress code varies each week makes more and more people ignore the dress code entirely. 

Because of these dress code guidelines, students have been arriving late to their classes. The lines have gotten so out of hand that students have been forced to stand on the road, while waiting for their clothes to be inspected. Some students got away without their uniform being checked. 

Some students can not afford school uniforms and the school at times does not supply us with school uniforms for every student. The clothes that they do sell at the Bear Store can be expensive and some students can not afford those school sweatshirts, pajama pants, or even windbreakers. The school wants us to wear the right colors and clothing, but they do not consider if students can even afford the uniform or the right colors. 

Staff has said before that we are allowed to wear any color jacket when it is raining. But the last time it rained, students that came in different color jackets weren’t allowed to wear it to school and were told to take it off, or put it away. If this demand was not met, students would have these items confiscated. 

Student Reyna Shaibi states “I was wearing a light brown khaki similar sweatshirt and they made me change.” It has various amounts of students upset and makes them not follow the school guidelines. Students understand that they have a strict dress code, but the school should understand the students’ home situations and work with them. If the school staff work with students I guarantee there will be way more students to apply the guidelines to their routine.