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Dress Code Controversy

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When the bill of rights was written in 1789, our founding fathers outlined what they believed to be the most basic, fundamental rights of the people. Of course by people, they really meant the white, male citizens of the USA. Obviously a lot has changed in the past 227 years of American history, for example, it is not socially acceptable to enslave a human being anymore, so why shouldn’t the basic rights and rules of governing change with it? The problem with government infringing on the citizens rights does not lie in changing rules that are literally older than sliced bread. It lies in the fact that the government has not produced effective guidelines that check them, limiting their power in dictating the citizen’s private lives. Without …show more content…
In 2013, when Edward Snowden released the NSA files, I was a freshman in high school, a mere baby to the world of politics. Even then I felt there was something conspicuously wrong with such extreme surveillance without any attempt to notify the public. One of the major justifications the NSA gave to intruding on the public’s private life was that the surveillance was necessary in aiding the search for terrorists and preventing attacks. Yet, according to newamerica.org’s article “Do NSA’s Bulk Surveillance Programs Stop Terrorists”, “Surveillance of American phone metadata has had no discernible impact on preventing acts …show more content…
Since an early age I remember being forced to change or put a sweater over spaghetti straps. Apparently a fourth grader’s shoulders were too distracting to the other students. But a dress code as strict as that loses it purpose to prevent distraction, causing a stir by sending kids out of the class weekly to change or call home. The embarrassment and hypocrisy children and teens face by being forced out of a classroom, missing out on important lessons, for the sake of covering up “distracting” body parts like shoulders and the lower femur is nothing compared to the misconceptions it reinforces. This abuse of power in school systems to force kids out of wearing garments as scandalous and inappropriate as spaghetti straps despite the weather and despite what their comfortable in conditions children to be embarrassed and ashamed of their body and judge others based on what they wear. Many would agree with school systems in that a school should be a professional environment, yet professional derives from a confidence that these students can decide what is professional and appropriate without guidelines that disrupt education. At its very core, the dress code is nothing more than a distrust of adolescents to act like adults and a way to suppress students and

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