Londonderry continues dress code work

Nov. 10—LONDONDERRY — A committee continues its work on updating dress code rules and language for middle and high school students.

At a School Board meeting Nov. 1, committee members offered updates on where the process was, and the timeline to come for putting updated dress code rules in place.

A lot of the potential updates could be in the language and how rules are described, committee members said.

And a lot of the conversation and policy concerns are around equity and the way language is used to describe the rules.

The committee met with the student councils from both the middle and high schools to get student input and hear concerns and views on how the updated dress code should be moving forward.

That was an "eye opening" experience, one committee member said, adding students have a keen sense of what they feel is important and what language in the current code may be a bit confusing to interpret.

Some students felt the current dress code is targeted more toward female students, committee members said, including the fact that the definition of a "muscle shirt" even caused some confusion for students.

Another word causing some confusion in the current code is "distracting" and what the definition truly is, and how one person may interpret it in an entirely different way than another.

And measuring skirt lengths via where a students' fingertips might fall as one definite rule could work well for one type of body but not another, the committee reported

The old language in the current code could be updated to bring a more modern view and wording to students, the committee reported.

The committee called the students' input "insightful," saying it's exciting to be working together with that age group to craft a new, updated dress code.

The work to craft a draft dress code proposal continues, with more information to come to the board and possibly new, updated rules to be approved after the first of the year, officials said.

Once approved, the updated dress code would go into student handbooks for the following school year.

Londonderry isn't the only school district paying attention to dress code rules.

Pinkerton Academy now has updated dress code rules thanks to the hard work and input from a group of students hoping to see some changes.