Teachers, administration, and even other students to ridicule other students on the clothes they are wearing as the weather gets dramatically warmer, and this is a behavior that needs to change.

The majority of students do use their judgement when getting dressed in the morning, school is a place of business, after all.

The dress code, allthough it is crafted possibly as broad as it can be, is not fitting for everybody at RHS, and can not accommodate all students.

Every student’s body is different. Meaning for the people who have longer arms, for example, they supposedly need longer shorts. The reality of it is, stores do not sell shorts that are “finger-tip length” (the standard requirement for shorts) so the students shouldn’t be out of luck, they shouldn’t be forced to wear pants, they should be allowed to wear shorts that they want.

“Some shorts also appear shorter than they actually are,” senior Korbyn Carleton said, “My limbs are so long, so when I wear the same shorts as somebody who is really short, I get called out for it. I get it, but it isn’t fair…everything “down therea�� is covered up and as long as that is the case, I think I’m dressed appropriately.”

Students tend to break out the shorts around the beginning of April as spring fever sets in, and the negative comments that come from surrounding peers are unbelievable. These harmful comments from peers are creating a step back from allowing freedom in what we as students at RHS should be allowed to wear.

A comment about wearing shorts “too early” in the year, that are “so short, girl!” or because it “only 60 degrees” can cause self-doubt to another student, simply thinking they were getting to the newest spring fashions. Its all so demeaning and over time the dress-code has put these thoughts into our head, causing student-student hate.

When asked, many students at RHS agreed that it is important to dress approptiately for a school setting, however, “How to dictate [the dress code] is difficult because wearing shorts is something everybody should be allowed to do, especially if it’s hot outside,” junior Joanna Klinedinst said.

Now you may think all teachers are out looking for the next student with shorts on to send down to administration, however, English teacher Dana Sato believes that with the use of proper judgement, as well as knowing the established communal dress code, shorts and tank tops should not be reprimanded.

“If people wanted to rephrase [the dress code] to say you can’t wear shorts or tank tops because of a professionalism level we are going for, I can get behind that,” Sato said, “But if you are going to say that students can’t wear x, y, or z clothes because it will distract members of the opposite sex…than that’s a problem.”

Sato explains that this RHSa�� past excuse for a dress code is no different than saying some guy raped a girl because of the clothes she was wearing . Girls with a lengthier body structure may wear shorts and have them appear shorter on them, and that is not their fault. “We need to take the victim blame off of people,” Sato said.

Not only is the temperature rising outside, but from early April to late May, the air conditioning in the school is not turned on, causing blistering heats in specific parts of the schools, as well as a generally warm temperature over the entirety of the building.

Sato said, “If the AC is going to be off or broken, it’s not fair to ask everybody to sit around in long pants or jeans for weeks to months at a time.” It is not fair to ask students to wear lengthy clothes in these conditions. In fact, most stores do not offer long shorts to begin with.

The numerous aspects to this one issue at RHS are ones that students can all get behind and stand against, because it affects them directly. It’s getting hot outside and even inside and we all need to adapt what we wear, as well as modify our attitudes about it.