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Date: 9/6/2022
GRANBY – With the school year underway in Granby, the School Committee spent time during their Aug. 30 meeting making final changes to the Granby Junior-Senior High School handbook and had a relevant discussion on the dress code.
Junior-Senior High School Principal Alison Jordan, who is in her first year as principal after serving in the interim role, joined the committee and began going through the handbook one more time before approving the 2022-2023 school year version.
The only question that came up from the latest edition of the handbook was on the vocabulary used when describing a dress code violation. School Committee member Stephanie Parent said the second section in the dress code portion of the handbook could cause a slippery slope.
The second section in the dress code portion made a distinction that shirts and blouses must cover the student’s abdomen.
“I know I saw almost every single back to school picture, that’s the style. How do we specify where that applies to make sure it’s equal to all students? It opens a slippery slope,” Parent said.
Jordan acknowledged Parent’s point, saying it has been very challenging and if you go to any store for teens clothing, the crop top type shirt exposing the abdomen is the fashion for female students right now. She noted that once a few weeks of school pass and the hot weather dies down, she believes the issue of outfits like this as well. The high school does not have an air conditioning unit for the building.
“We’re not targeting and looking at kids and calling them out. It’s also 97 degrees in our building now and it’s hot. I feel like the first couple days back, yeah, everyone’s a fashionista right now but in the next eight months they’re all going to be in sweats and hoodies,” Jordan said. “There is a happy medium, but we have to meet the kids where they’re at right now.”
Jordan added everyone has their own opinion about what’s appropriate and what’s not and felt it is hard to enforce this point in the handbook due to student’s trends.
Parent responded and said that is almost exactly her concern for the wording of this rule in the dress code. She called the wording “very vague” and suggested it needed to be equal across the board or removed as “blouses” in the wording specifically suggests female clothing and not male clothing.
Jordan agreed with Parent’s concerns and added she hopes parents are having conversations with their children about their clothing and presentation before sending them off to school, something Jordan said she had with her own daughter the morning of the first day.
“So, is it 2 inches or 4 inches of the abdomen? It comes down to administrative description but in a few weeks, I feel like the fad is gone. Is that the right answer? I don’t know,” Jordan said. “I don’t know if I have the right answer. I’m assuming other schools are dealing with the crop tops as well. It’s hard to ask when it’s sweltering hot in the building to cover up. We have to do it for everyone if we do it to one.”
School Committee Chair Jennifer Bartosz reiterated from the the committee’s past handbook discussions that they did not want to come across as discriminatory in any way through dress code enforcements and that the wording here could cause an issue if this point in the dress code were to strictly be enforced.
Jordan said she had yet to receive any negative feedback from parents that the school is targeting or discriminating students. She added the school uses administrative discretion to be flexible and fair, but they are also still in a learning environment and must have a line for students.
“I’m a mom and when we do speak with the kids, we do talk to them about how they present themselves and what they’re wearing but you’re walking a fine line with what your words are to them because they can take it in so many different ways,” Jordan said. “I try to talk to the students as how I would want someone to speak to my own child if they had a concern about what they were wearing.”
Superintendent Stephen Sullivan joined the conversation and said the standard across other parts of the handbook in relation to dress code was “substantial disruption.” He called the distraction wording “tricky” and suggested using the word disruption would be better off for this specific issue.
School Committee member Jill Pelletier agreed with Sullivan about the specific wording and said the two different words have two very different connotations so she would be comfortable with using disruption. Jordan added that the world disruption was a global piece, and that distraction gives the feeling of blame to a student.
“There are so many unique styles our kids have, and we always want to support their unique style,” Jordan said. “I’m happy to use the word disruptive or disruption.”
Changes were made in the handbook to reflect the vocabulary used on dress codes but there was still an issue with the section still being left in relating to blouses and shirts covering the abdomen. Committee member Audrey Siudak said if the school were to leave in this section in the dress code it could still cause issues.
“Fad or not, we are allowing it. If we allow one item, does that not negate the rest?” Siudak asked. “If we are going to be sticklers then fine, but if someone comes up with profanity on their shirt and a girl has her abdomen our, what’s the big deal. If we are going to be specific it has to be consistent for all.”
Bartosz agreed with the point about inappropriate shirts and added that the blouses wording was more female oriented. Parent added that if they were going to have a policy but say due to trends it would not be totally enforced, then she felt there was no point in leaving it in.
The committee agreed on the point and removed the section from the dress code. Jordan reiterated with the amount of wording across the dress code describing disruptions as things like no underwear on a student, beachwear or profane shirts, she felt that it was fine removing the section on blouses. The committee also agreed a clear difference in disruption versus distraction is the number of students having their attention taken away and the total impact on classroom learning. Jordan said the handbook would be shared with families later in the week.