Saint Stephen’s has come out with a new dress code for the 2017-2018 school year. There are many new alterations, however, there is one new change that stands out more than any other. The new dress code forbids teams or players from wearing jerseys to school on game days, unless your game is on a Friday.

Due to the new changes in dress code, many students will be unable to support their teams on the day of their games or events, only a few sports have games on Friday’s. This is a change from last year when students could wear their jersey to school on game day, even if it wasn’t Friday. This will affect the student body severely, as the majority of the student body participates in a sport. Student-athletes take pride in their teams, and like to show support by wearing their uniforms to school the day of games. This new dress code will have an impact on many players’ spirit and attitude.

The new dress policy states, “Saint Stephen’s team jerseys that cover the shoulders may be worn on Friday spirit days only with acceptable-length skirts, shorts or pants.’’
Students are bothered by this particular alteration, generally, because they feel a sense of unity is gone. Teams felt strong and united when wearing their matching uniforms. Throughout the day it was easy to identify your teammates, and when you wear your jersey to school it helps create the “game day atmosphere.”

Certain sports will not have game on Friday throughout their entire season.This newly revised dress code is also unfair to female athletes in particular. It seems this new modification supports boys football at the expense of those who do not have games on Friday’s. For example the swim team does not have a single meet scheduled for a Friday for the whole season.

Only the sports teams who don’t have games on Friday have to suffer the consequences while the few and lucky teams that have games on Friday’s are unaffected by the new dress code.

Mr. Forester, upper school director, stated, “Students are to dress in regular dress code every day, and friday is the only day spirit shirts and jerseys are acceptable to be worn.”

This dress code rule takes away students’ abilitydesire to show their team spirit and takes away school camaraderie. This new rule lets football wear their team shirts, prioritizing them over others, does that sound like a fair just rule? Volleyball, girls soccer, swim, and many other sports do not have games or meets usually on Fridays.

Dress coding also takes students out of class. Dress coding, or being dress coded, is when a student breaks the dress code, and is caught wearing clothes that are out of our dress policy. Multiple students everyday are taken out of class and forced to miss lessons because they need to go change their clothes. Demi Harms, a sophomore, was dress coded the first week of school. She was wearing a dress that did not have sleeves. She missed a lesson in geometry and later had to relearn the material she missed by herself. Saint Stephen’s has rigorous classes, and it is necessary to give 100% of your attention to your teacher in order to keep up in classes.

The students are reason behind the dress code alterations. Students would abuse the dress code, and wear spirit shirts whenever they wanted. Several students would wear jerseys to school whether they had a game or not, just because they did not want to wear the appropriate collared shirt.

Now students regret breaking the dress code, because administrators obviously noticed. Hopefully the student body can realize the privilege we lost and work together to redeem ourselves. So that maybe sometime in the future we will be allowed to wear our jerseys on game day whether it’s Friday or not.

Overall many students are very disappointed in the new dress code and want to see changes. At the very least, make the dress code equal for all students and athletes. We look forward to representing our teams throughout the seasons and hopefully the school will take the unfairness of the dress code under consideration.