Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Beaty-Warren Middle School students (from right) Lani Wenzel, Brooke Sherry, Sierra Craig, and Hayden Schuler address the Warren County School district school board regarding the dress code during Monday night’s committee meetings.

A group of students availed themselves to their right to petition the government for redress of dress code grievances at Monday’s school board committee meetings.

Beaty-Warren Middle School students Hayden Schuler, Brooke Sherry, Sierra Craig, and Lani Wenzel spoke before the curriculum, instruction, and assessment committee.

“We’re asking that the school board take a look into the dress code,” Craig said.

They said that the recent actions taken at the school to enforce the dress code was more disruptive to the educational process than the violations would have been.

“I felt like I was being stared down,” Wenzel said. “It made many girls uncomfortable.”

She said it can be difficult for students to find clothing that matches the requirements. “Most stores will not carry shorts with the inseam that you are looking for,” Wenzel said.

Brooke Sherry said the approved shorts “are not being marketed.”

“I can’t think of a store that sells comfortable mid-thigh shorts,” Schuler said.

Sherry said students “are being judged at school for our clothes… for wearing clothes that embarrass us because they are not socially acceptable. These things do not just happen at school, they follow us home.”

Sherry asked that the board not try to force middle school girls to dress like “middle-aged women.”

“The dress code is not inclusive,” Craig said. “In middle school, girls are maturing, getting used to our new bodies. Saying ‘mid-thigh’ doesn’t work.”

Schuler said some families may not be able to afford to buy new shorts that meet the requirements over and over as their girls grow taller.

Wenzel suggested that the board consider a shorts requirement ” the same length as mothers and teachers are wearing.”

“The times are different,” Craig said. “It’s 2023.” As long as “private parts are covered… girls should be able to be comfortable in what they are wearing.”

“We don’t want to be scared to come into school that we are going to be shamed about what we are wearing,” Craig said.

They said the enforcement of the code is unfair toward girls.

“Boys can wear muscle shirts,” Schuler said. “If a girl shows up in a tank top or shorts above her thigh, she is asked to change.”

“We should not be seen as a distraction towards boys,” she said, suggesting that the boys be taught to be more respectful.

“We’re asking that the school board take a look into the dress code,” Craig said.

The students’ concerns did not fall on deaf ears, but they may not see much change before the next school year.

The board and administration are aware of the concerns with the dress code.

“We’re going to be revisiting the dress code… probably this summer,” Superintendent Amy Stewart. “Once we get school wrapped up, we’ll be revisiting.”

She said the district revised the code prior to the current school year, making it “more permissive than it was prior.”

She said a student survey that fits in the citizenship aspect of the eighth-grade social studies curriculum will help the district gather more information, as will a request that will be forwarded to parents.

Stewart explained to the board that the “mid-thigh” language was “intended to be discretionary.”

Board Member Jeff Dougherty thanked the girls for their presentations and said he understood their concerns.

“Part of the problem was how the girls were approached,” Board Member Marcy Morgan said. “The administration could have a kinder, gentler approach when talking to someone about their attire.”

Stewart said, “If anybody has any question, we can answer all of those.”