Portsmouth School Committee Approves New Student Dress Code

PORTSMOUTH, RI — As Portsmouth students get ready to head back to school next week, a new dress code is in the works. Earlier this week, the school committee approved a new policy after a petition calling the dress code sexist garnered hundreds of signatures.

The petition was started by Ava and Sophia, two fifth graders at Portsmouth Middle School. In it, the girls outlined why they believed the former policy to be sexist, saying it unfairly targeted female students and violated their civil rights. More than 600 supported the petition.

"Many of the girls in the Portsmouth Middle School community have a issue with the way we're being treated. We feel that our school wide dress code is showing inequality to our young women. In social studies we are being taught about racial prejudice, and we know that prejudice based on sexism is just as important, and is just as huge of a problem," the petition reads in part. "By punishing us for our appearance you are saying it is okay for the boys in our school to not being able to look at us and see us as people and not as inanimate objects to be stared at."

The 2018-19 high school student handbook specifically bans several articles of clothing usually worn only by girls, including halter tops, tanks tops, tube tops, "excessively short or revealing neck lines" and exposed midriffs.

The middle school student handbook, meanwhile, is not specifically dated on the school website has a similar dress code policy.

"Appearance and clothing should not be a distraction to student learning, i.e. pants worn low or short shorts or skirts, hair dyed an unusual color, inappropriate tops that are off the shoulder, cut low or with the midriff showing, clothing deliberately ripped or torn," the policy reads in part.

In response, a new, district-wide policy was drafted and approved by the school committee on Tuesday, ABC 6 reported. The new policy is much more vague in its descriptions of what is appropriate, saying that "the responsibility for the dress and grooming of a student rests primarily with the student and his or her parent or guardian."

No specific articles of clothing are banned in the new policy, with simple outlines including that all clothing must cover "breasts, buttocks and genitals" with opaque fabric, all undergarments must be covered and that students must wear both a shirt and pants or the equivalent, such as a dress, leggings or shorts.

According to the superintendent's office, the district is "still collecting feedback on this policy." It is set for final review at the upcoming school committee meeting on September 10.