“If someone is going to dress code me, that is a compliment because it means I am attractive enough to distract someone,” Lindsey Arnold, a fifteen year old freshmen at Geneva High School, said.

A poll taken throughout several freshmen and sophomore classes found that out of 80 boys, only 2 had ever been dress coded, in comparison to 115 girls, where 30 had been dress coded.

Many of the answers given by the girls who had been dress coded included 14 whose shorts were too short, 18 whose shoulders or bra straps had been showing, six whose stomachs had been revealed, and more.

When asked why girls were dresscoded drastically more than girls the answer was simple.  “I think it’s the style of clothes.” Mrs. Shrader, says.  This alludes to the oftentimes more revealing nature that boys’ clothes oftentimes don’t feature.

The written responses added to the annoyed and sometimes sarcastic responses from girls who similarly felt they had been unjustly dress coded.

Izzy Schamburger wrote, “My skirt was too short.  Sorry I have legs and sorry you had to take time out of my school day to tell me I could be distracting to someone else!”

A girl who left the name Ava wrote, “for my shirt being too short and shorts apparently…It was in front of a whole class not to mention.  And I quote from the teacher who said… ‘yeah, you’re pulling down your shirt when your buttcheecks are hanging out of your shorts.'”

Claire Douglas wrote about a female supervisor who had reportedly told her, “…someone would say, ‘I was asking for it’.”

“This isn’t about boys, it’s about girls being prided in themselves and some self-confidence…I would never want a girl to dress a certain way to feel better about herself. We want her to be confident to begin with.” Mrs. Shrader said.

Geneva High School girls speak on the dress code restrictions and the message it sends to young women everywhere.

“I think it’s discriminating…” said Kaitlyn Cannon, a freshmen who had been dress coded in front of her mother during locker set up for wearing high waisted shorts and a white crop top.  “Because like, guys don’t have any dress codes against them at all.”

The warm days of mid-August and late May call for according apparel such as the shorts and tank tops that girls wear to keep cool in the early and last days of the school year.

Dana Sebenste wore shorts that were “a little higher than fingertip length.”  She was given a note by her eighth grade teachers that expressed they were “just trying to protect her.”  Dana goes on to say, “I thought it was… not dumb but not necessary.”

One of the three Deans at Geneva High School, Mrs. Shrader, says, “Ultimately we want everybody covered up, so if we don’t feel like they’re covered, then that’s when we would ask them to change.”

Many girls, like Dana, become confused or annoyed with the apparent unjust treatment towards what they see as irrational dress codes.

Mrs. Shrader says, “…we’ll address a student and we’ll say that we really don’t think that outfit, or whatever it is, is appropriate for school. A lot of times, I’ll say ‘save it for the weekend instead of for school’, so I think most people understand.”

The girls don’t seem to be as understanding as thoroughly as the Geneva staff may have assumed.

When asked how the dress code made her feel Lindsey answered, “kind of like the school is obnoxious.”  Other answers varied from anger to embarrassment as the girls were taken from class or stopped in the hall for what they felt was inadequate or minuscule dress codes.

Lindsey was asked if high schools who dress code young girls, such as Geneva, consider the message it conveys to young women.

When asked, Lindsey Arnold quickly said, “I think it shows we shouldn’t be confident and that we need to be told what we’re supposed to do and what we should wear and I think that we are definitely old enough to make our own decisions.”

However, teachers and advisors don’t see it that way.  Mrs. Shrader says, “…what you wear to school, it’s okay that that’s different than what you might wear when you’re, like I said going out with friends. We want you [students] to cover your body up… I always say, ‘leave a little to the imagination’.”

The girls were then asked if it was girls’ responsibility to ensure that boys are not distracted throughout the school day.

“It’s more of whose training the guys what to do around females”, Dana says.  Kaitlyn Cannon says, “It should be their responsibility and not dependent on the girls”, while Lindsey Arnold says, “It’s not our responsibility at all.  It’s not our fault if they are immature.”

Mrs. Shrader, however, argues against popular belief that dress codes are enforced because of young males.

“It’s not always about boys being distracted.  That might be a little bit of a misconception. We want everybody to be comfortable and if somebody is wearing something that makes anybody uncomfortable, we would like to address that.”

When asked if there was any way to fix school dress codes Mrs. Shrader sighed and said, “It’s an uphill battle because it’s tough in a building this size to enforce that [proper attire]…Everybody sees it a little bit different. So what one person might see as inappropriate another person might not.”