Dress Code
Updated for 2021-2022
Updated for 2021-2022![]()
Updated for 2021-2022
DRESS CODE PHILOSOPHY
Olympus JHS’s Dress Code supports the school as a place of educational business and is intended to provide equitable educational access for all students. It has been thoughtfully written in a manner that does not reinforce stereotypes and does not reinforce or increase marginalization or oppression of any group.
The student dress code supports our goal of inspiring students to learn while leaving primary decisions around student clothing and style to students and their parent(s)/guardian(s). Olympus’s expectation is that parents and guardians are responsible for ensuring student compliance with the school’s dress code, and students are responsible for knowing the student dress code and for complying during school hours and school activities.
To ensure effective and equitable enforcement of this dress code, school staff shall enforce the dress code consistently and in a manner that does not reinforce or increase marginalization or oppression of any group.
Staff (teachers and administration) used student feedback as well as researched options to support an updated Dress Code policy.
Our values are:
- All students should be able to dress comfortably for school and engage in the educational environment without fear of or actual unnecessary discipline or body shaming.
- All students should understand that they are responsible for managing their own personal "distractions" without regulating individual students' clothing/self-expression.
- Student dress code enforcement should not result in unnecessary barriers to school attendance (daily or during individual periods).
- Teachers should focus on teaching without the additional and often uncomfortable burden of dress code enforcement.
- Reasons for conflict and inconsistent and/or inequitable discipline should be minimized whenever possible.
Our student dress code is designed to accomplish several goals:
- Maintain a safe learning environment, where individualized clothing choices are supported except in classes where protective or supportive clothing is needed, such as science (eye or body protection), Life Skills (hats/apron), or PE (athletic attire/shoes) are required, etc.
- Allow students to wear clothing of their choice that is comfortable.
- Prevent students from wearing clothing or accessories with offensive images or language, including profanity, speech, and pornography.
- Prevent students from wearing clothing or accessories that denote, suggest, display or reference alcohol, drugs or related paraphernalia or other illegal conduct or activities.
- Prevent students from wearing clothing or accessories that will interfere with the operation of the school, disrupt the educational process, invade the rights of others, or create a reasonably foreseeable risk of such interference or invasion of rights.
- Prevent students from wearing clothing or accessories that reasonably can be construed as being or including content that is racist, lewd, vulgar, or obscene, or that reasonably can be construed as containing fighting words, defamatory speech, or threats to others.
- Ensure that all students are treated equitably regardless of race, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, cultural observance, household income, or body type/size.
Dress Code
Olympus JHS expects that all students will dress in a way that is appropriate for the “business of school” every school day or at school-sponsored events. The primary responsibility for a student’s attire resides with the student and their parent(s) or guardian(s). However, the school is responsible for seeing that student attire does not interfere with the health or safety of any student, that student attire does not contribute to a hostile or intimidating atmosphere, and that dress code enforcement does not reinforce or increase marginalization or oppression of any group.
1. Basic Principle: Certain body parts must be covered for all students at all times.
- Clothes must be worn in such a way that immodest body parts are fully covered with opaque fabric. All items listed in the “must wear” and “may wear” categories below must meet this basic principle.
2. Students Must Wear* while following the basic principle of Section 1 above:
- A Shirt (with fabric in the front, back, and on the sides under the arms), AND
- Pants/jeans or the equivalent (for example, a skirt, sweatpants, leggings, a dress or shorts), AND Shoes.
*Courses that include attire as part of the curriculum (for example, professionalism, public speaking, and job readiness) may include assignment-specific dress. Athletic/tennis shoes are required for physical education class.
3. Students May Wear, as long as these items do not violate Section 1 above:
-
- Hats facing straight forward or straight backward. Hats must allow the face to be visible to staff, and not
- interfere with the line of sight of any student or staff. Teachers may decide to allow them to be worn within their classrooms.
- Religious headwear
- Hoodie sweatshirts may be worn anytime. Wearing the hood overhead is allowed, during inclement/rainy/cold weather, but the face must be visible to school staff.
- Shirts/tank (tops) and pants/shorts (bottoms) must meet while standing (no bare midriffs). This will allow any student to participate fully in the school day.
- Fitted pants, including opaque leggings, yoga pants, and “skinny jeans”
- Ripped jeans, as long as underwear and buttocks are not exposed.
- Tank tops, including spaghetti straps, must have two straps (one on each side).
- Athletic shorts
- Pants, skirts, shorts, etc must fit at the waist.
- Visible waistbands on undergarments or visible straps on undergarments worn under other clothing (as long as this is done in a way that does not violate Section 1 above).
4. Students Cannot Wear:
- Violent language or images
- Images or language depicting/suggesting drugs, alcohol, vaping or paraphernalia (or any illegal item or activity)
- Hate speech, profanity, pornography
- Images or language that creates a hostile or intimidating environment
- Any clothing that reveals visible undergarments (visible waistbands and visible straps are allowed)
- Swimsuits
- Accessories that could be considered dangerous or could be used as a weapon
- Any item that obscures the face or ears (except as a religious observance or adherence to public health guidelines)
5. Dress Code Enforcement
- To ensure effective and equitable enforcement of this dress code, school staff shall enforce the dress code consistently using the requirements below.
- These dress code guidelines shall apply to regular school days as well as any school-related events and activities - like field trips.
- Students will only be addressed as a result of dress code violations as outlined in Sections 1 and 4 above. Students in violation of Section 1 and/or 4 will be provided three (3) options to be dressed more to code during the school day:
- Students will be asked to put on their own alternative clothing, if already available at school, to be dressed more to code for the remainder of the day (PE clothes or alternative clothes the student brought with them).
- Students will be provided with temporary school clothing to be dressed more to code for the remainder of the day (loaned PE or washed lost and found clothes).
- As a last option, if a student chooses to call parents during the school day to bring alternative clothing for the student to wear for the remainder of the day, the student may only wait for 15 minutes before returning to class in PE/borrowed clothes until the family member arrives. This is to minimize the loss of instructional time. The student will be released from class upon the arrival of the family member.
Acknowledgment is given to Oregon NOW Model Student Dress Code, as well as, The Evanston Township High School’s Dress Code.
