By Lily Fraser

The body is usually the number one thing that teenagers either flaunt or shame.

Any adult will mention how it was the prime of their life. However, high schools have hounded down on students and their urges to dress obscenely for their age. Security and administration catch girls and boys, from freshmen to even a few seniors now and again throughout the day. But, does a little too much shoulder really affect a male’s will to learn?

Question after question arise when teen girls get caught for “too much” skin showing (stomach, shoulder, chest) and need to cover. Or when boys get flabbergasted when being told that the female on their shirt shows sexualization towards the gender and they need to take it off or must change.

It seems that the targeting of dress code violations here at Wheat Ridge is only towards certain children, students say. But is it to mark children particularly? Women are capable of having the same respect and opportunities as males. From when women were identified with the XX chromosome and feminine characteristics, we’ve been pointed out and bashed upon about our choice of clothing and whether or not it’s too revealing, tomboyish, or that it’s not “woman-like.” Everyone wants respect and honestly, coming from a female, showing off too much of a certain body part will make the opposite sex treat women like meat. For example, the famous quote from the ever so popular Donald J. Trump and how that has changed the mindset of men and allowing them to sexualize women.

Men, as well, do get targeted for dress code, yet more for small clothing It’s about respect. A majority of boys want to look suave and seem mysterious and intricate. School wants to not only teach the kids how to succeed in adult and college life, but also how to show respect to one another.

Being a female and seeing how some girls at the age of seventeen dress, along with the actions that are made towards them, disgusts me to a new level. Nobody at the age of seventeen should dress like they’re twenty-one years old and going out to a party. Boys are the same way. Dressing immaturely won’t make anyone be attracted to them, and yet again, they’ll complain and bicker about the coding when coming to school with a hat on and a shirt that has vulgar language.

Dress codes seem like the biggest mistake to multiple people while passing and overhearing their conversations in the hallways. But, when you think about it, when schools dress code people (anyone they can catch in that day), they want you to respect yourself and the others around you. Doubting the fact that someone would wear vulgar clothing and expose themselves during a job interview or for a senior picture for the yearbook.

Overhearing the chattering of how “stupid” dress coding is seems to be one of the main conversation now a days. Even on one the coldest of days in Colorado in 2016, with the high of nine degrees, I’ve seen girls strolling around the halls, trying to somehow show certain amounts of skin even though there’s snow on the ground and the harsh cold seeps into the bones. It seems as if, no matter the time of years, girls and boys want to show themselves off.

Respecting one’s self is a quality that many people enjoy. I highly doubt that looking unpresentable in public is what strangers, coworkers, and schoolmates want to see throughout the day.