No hoodies. No do-rags. No spaghetti straps. In Chicago Public Schools, dress codes leave many students feeling slighted.

Emily Hoerner, Chicago Tribune
·23 min read

At Cassell Elementary in Mount Greenwood, girls are instructed in this year’s student handbook that their shirts “must meet the waist and not reveal cleavage.”

The dress code at Ashburn Community Elementary permits girls to wear pants, shorts or skirts, but boys are limited to pants. Boys also can’t wear earrings or bracelets, though girls can.

In Pullman, only the girls at Corliss High School are told not to show their thighs or to wear clothing with writing on the buttocks.

The student code of conduct for the Chicago Public Schools has stated for a decade that dress codes and uniform policies should be gender neutral. Yet in a comprehensive review of hundreds of recent school policies, the Tribune identified 95 schools that set separate rules for girls and boys in apparent violation of district rules. Such policies may subject transgender and nonbinary students to increased discipline, research suggests.

The code also says CPS students “may not be barred from attending class” for not following dress code rules, but 53 schools governed by district policies recently have stated students can be removed from the classroom, referred to the office or sent home for the day for wearing the wrong clothes or accessories.

In addition, the Tribune identified 26 Chicago public schools that had some form of hair prohibition in place this school year, according to current school handbooks or undated policies posted on schools’ websites. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law in August that was intended to eliminate discrimination based on hairstyles tied to race and ethnicity — “including, but not limited to, protective hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists.” The law took effect in January. More than half of the schools with hair restrictions are predominantly Black.

The Tribune also found that nearly half of the city’s more than 600 public schools have set conditions around modesty that go beyond limiting nudity, such as bans on leggings, spaghetti-strap tops and skirts or dresses shorter than fingertip length. More than 300 imposed bans on baggy clothing, pants worn low, hoodies or hair-care items like do-rags or headwraps.

Those bans are not against district rules; the code of conduct says, “Local School Councils may adopt a dress code policy that forbids students from wearing certain items.” But educators say such restrictions can put girls and children of color at higher risk of being punished. The CPS code of conduct says students who do not uphold the dress code “may be given detentions or excluded from extracurricular activities,” and it allows for “additional consequences” if a student’s attire could disrupt the learning environment.

Researchers have found that being disciplined for any reason can have negative consequences on student performance and classroom relationships between students and teachers, especially for students of color who have historically faced disproportionate discipline that removes them from classrooms.

Some Chicago students told the Tribune they can understand the need for clothing bans tied to safety, like those aimed at identifying intruders in the hallways or barring overt gang symbolism. But they said other rules made them feel unfairly targeted because of their body type or culture.

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Judai Smith, a Kenwood Academy High School senior, said the school’s rules have left her feeling that students’ full identities are not welcome in the classroom. The student handbook says students should refrain from wearing hats, headgear and “loose, sagging pants,” among other items.

“They want us to conform to this Eurocentric (view) of what it means to be a scholar or what it means to be professional and it takes away from our Blackness,” Smith said. “We feel like our Blackness is criminal, our Blackness is not supposed to be there — and our woman-ness, because they still police our bodies as well with the dress codes.”

Jada Valle said she has been frustrated by her school’s ban on leggings, one of the few types of pants that fit her comfortably. She said the thought that her body could be a distraction to other students makes her angry.

“What’s on my body does not define me,” said Valle, a freshman at Goode STEM Academy in the Ashburn neighborhood. “Me wanting to be comfortable is different from you wanting to look at me and saying that I’m trying to show off my body when it’s not that, it’s a whole different story.”

The Tribune reviewed recent dress code policies from roughly three-quarters of CPS schools, including neighborhood elementary and high schools as well as charter, magnet, selective enrollment, alternative and occupational schools, and the district’s six military academy high schools.

When tallying how many schools appeared to violate district rules on gender-neutral dress codes and loss of class time, the Tribune excluded schools that are exempt, including charter schools and the military academies.

Dress code rules were identified through public records requests and via schools’ websites and social media accounts. Most policies were from the 2021-22 student handbook or were posted online this school year. Some policies date as far back as the 2018-19 school year if more recent policies could not be obtained. Schools may have altered some policies after they were obtained and analyzed, and schools also do not always enforce their written policies.

The Chicago Public Schools did not make anyone available to answer questions about the Tribune’s findings but said in a statement Tuesday that it “aims to ensure that our district policies are consistently applied for all students and schools.”

In an earlier statement, the district said that in April it began planning a systemwide audit process to examine schools’ dress codes, with a goal of determining whether policies are harming students or leading to inequities.

“Of all the places that children experience systemic discomfort based on their appearance, schools should never be on the list,” the statement said.

Most leaders at individual schools contacted by the Tribune either did not respond or referred questions to the district. Kenwood Academy Principal Karen Calloway said in an interview that her school’s dress policy is “loose and very liberal” to support student individuality and described the ban on headgear as safety related and necessary.

Calloway also said the school plans to update “obsolete” language that bars students from wearing spaghetti straps or sagging pants. Most students do not have an issue with the dress code, she said, adding that there were more important things worth highlighting at Kenwood, like the number of students receiving scholarships.

“I think they would love, in a perfect world, to be able to put their hoods on or whatever the case, but they do understand why we’re not doing it,” Calloway said.

The dress code debate

The issues surrounding school dress codes are complex. Many of the rules are based on well-intentioned goals like helping students stay safe, limiting classroom distractions and preparing students for the professional world.

At the Chicago Math and Science Academy charter school in Rogers Park, for example, this year’s student handbook says the dress code policy helps to “create a safe and orderly environment, instill discipline and eliminate the competition and distractions caused by varied dress styles.”

Some public schools chose to adopt the strictest of dress codes — a school uniform — in the 1990s following incidents when young people in Chicago were mugged, shot and killed over Starter jackets, other expensive clothing or gang-colored attire. In 1996, the U.S. Department of Education said uniforms’ potential benefits included reducing violence and theft, preventing gang symbolism, helping students concentrate, teaching young people discipline and making it easier to identify intruders.

But research on whether uniform policies are effective in creating safer environments or better outcomes for students has been mixed.

Some parents told the Tribune they were comfortable with rules barring gang symbolism, limiting how much skin can be shown and promoting a distinguished look for students. They said uniforms in particular made mornings easier, saved money and helped reduce bullying.

Lisa Thomas, a mother of four and parent member of the Local School Council at Morrill Math and Science Elementary in Chicago Lawn, said her son’s uniform has saved her money and she thinks it reduces conflict among students.

“There are kids that don’t have the name-brand clothes,” Thomas said. “They can be bullied or teased because they don’t have that type of clothes, so I think (the) uniform plays a very significant part.”

Other parents disagreed that uniforms always made things easier for families, noting the cost of buying uniforms, the need to do more laundry and their children’s resistance to wearing them.

Vanessa Gracia, a parent and Local School Council member at Holden Elementary in Bridgeport, said she has a complicated relationship with the school’s uniform policy. Many families at the school are low-income, she said, and the policy evens the playing field for students while providing structure for the children. But with three children at the school, she said, buying uniforms can be costly.

“I’m always on the fence when it comes to the uniform — I love it, but I hate it,” Gracia said.

LeeAndra Khan, executive director at EPIC Academy in South Chicago, said she understands why many schools implement uniform policies. But, she said, the rules also bring “unintended consequences.”

One consequence is that rigid policies can limit students’ gender expression, especially those who are transitioning or nonbinary. Roughly half of transgender and gender nonbinary respondents to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey reported being prohibited from expressing their gender identity through dress during their K-12 education.

The survey, conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, also found transgender and nonbinary students who had negative experiences in educational settings were more likely to have attempted suicide, experienced homelessness and dealt with psychological distress. Seventeen percent of transgender and nonbinary people said they left school because of mistreatment.

Students also have increasingly been pushing back on what they view as sexist restrictions on clothing often worn by girls and women. Many argue that rules against do-rags and other attire are grounded in racism.

As awareness around issues of inequality has grown, some Chicago schools have chosen to relax dress code policies. Several have adopted policies similar to a model dress code created in 2016 by the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for Women. Such policies often require only that all students wear a top, bottom and shoes and cover their breasts, genitals and buttocks with opaque fabric.

Parents and administrators at some Chicago schools that recently eased their policies said the changes were generally positive and did not lead to behavioral disruptions.

Harrison Baker and Madisson Dickson, assistant principals at Westinghouse College Prep in Humboldt Park, undertook a monthslong dress code overhaul after noticing some students were admonished for violations more than others. Among the first steps: lifting bans on hats and hair-care items like do-rags and bonnets that some people of color use to protect their hair.

“When I look around and I see students who are able to wear their hats and wear their hoodies and feel comfortable and still make it to class, I see this as a place where they are affirmed in who they are and not turned away because of things that were historically looked at as not professional, or not mainstream culture,” Baker said.

‘Some pretty outdated ideas’

After spending her entire junior year online, Hubbard High School senior Giuliana Huerta came into school this fall wanting to show her style.

But according to this year’s student handbook, the dress code at the West Lawn school prohibits skirts and shorts shorter than fingertip length as well as “spaghetti straps, sheer tops, plunging necklines, crop-tops and tube tops,” among numerous other rules.

Huerta said getting told she needs to cover up at school leaves her feeling embarrassed, lowers her self-esteem and causes her to “shrink down.”

Huerta, who is a student representative at the school, surveyed her classmates about the dress code and found many also thought the rules were unfairly enforced. Girls with more developed bodies, they said, were often told to cover up, while other similarly dressed girls were not disciplined in the same way.

“If it distracts the males, then maybe it should be more of their problem, like they should be controlled rather than us,” Huerta said. “Why are we being told something?”

The Tribune’s review found dozens of schools have prohibited students from showing particular parts of their skin, including their shoulders and arms, chests, stomachs or thighs, in dress codes from the last few years. At least 69 barred plunging necklines or cleavage of any kind, and 132 schools warned against showing a student’s midriff.

Dress codes at 62 schools prohibited spaghetti straps. Students at 120 schools were restricted from wearing leggings as pants, and more than 240 prohibited short shorts, skirts and dresses. All of these clothing items are commonly marketed to and worn by girls and teens.

Azaria Gavin, a freshman at Goode, said she also has seen how dress code policies affect students whose bodies are more developed than others.

“If you wear a certain shirt, they will tell you to take it off and put a hoodie on,” she said. “How are you going to make them take off what they want to wear because of something that they were born with?”

Codes that target girls with modesty rules are found at schools throughout the country, said Richard Thompson Ford, a civil rights and anti-discrimination law professor at Stanford University who authored “Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History.”

“Those are almost universal and are premised on some pretty outdated ideas or problematic ideas about women’s bodies, about how women should feel about their bodies as a source of shame,” Ford said. “And they’re being implemented at a time when young girls are physically developing into mature women and, of course, with all of the anxiety that necessarily accompanies those kinds of changes through adolescence. And these dress codes are really compounding it in some cases by making them feel pretty bad about themselves.”

Such policies ultimately come down to controlling bodies, said Kelly Reddy-Best, an associate professor at Iowa State University who has studied dress codes.

“Especially with things related to gender, that is the early phases of the oppression of girls and women’s bodies,” Reddy-Best said. “That is an active form of oppression that those people are engaging in, whether they are consciously thinking that or not.”

‘Automatically being stereotyped’

Shujaa Ajamu is one student at Kenwood Academy who said he would like his school to change its policy against headgear. School administrators sometimes confiscate do-rags and other items used to protect textured hair, he said.

“Who’s wearing bonnets and do-rags? Black people are wearing (them),” said Ajamu, a junior. “It’s Black culture that you’re banning from school. And it’s a predominantly Black school in general.”

Calloway, the principal, said the ban on headgear was meant primarily to target hoods, which can make students difficult to identify on surveillance cameras when needed. She said she believes that Kenwood students generally are not upset about restrictions and that most are not “waking up in the morning trying to wear a bonnet to school.”

“Is there a subset of African American people who may wear bonnets outside or do-rags outside? Absolutely,” Calloway said. “Are our students indicative of that subculture? I think if they are, it’s (at an) almost minute scale.”

The Tribune found 116 schools where recent dress code policies specifically banned do-rags, bonnets, wave caps, bandannas, headscarves or other hair accessories worn by some people of color.

More than 260 schools set specific restrictions on hoods, hoodies, sagging pants or overly baggy clothing, all popular choices with many young people.

Research suggests that wearing these items can trigger stereotypical thinking in others; hooded sweatshirts, for example, can be perceived as threatening on some bodies. Sagging pants, too, have been associated with harmful stereotypes and have been formally criminalized in some cities. One study published in 2017 found that when people of color wore sagging clothing and particular hairstyles associated with rap and hip-hop culture, they were subjected to bias and more aggressive policing.

Bans on hoodies, braids and sagging pants unfairly categorize students and adults as problems based on their culture or race, said CPS parent Thomas.

“A lot of African American guys, they wear their pants sagged,” she said. “If they see them with their pants sagging because maybe it’s just a style and they like it, they’re automatically being stereotyped, they’re put in a category.”

Thomas said she generally supports the uniform policy at Morrill, where her son is in eighth grade. But she didn’t like it when the school took issue with the teen wearing a warm hoodie she’d bought because he complained of being cold in class.

At Goode, the school’s online policy says hooded sweatshirts are not allowed, though students said in reality they are barred only from wearing the hoods up. Samuel Vincent Barnes, a junior there, said he gets tired of being scolded for wearing his hood and is sure security guards get annoyed with enforcing the rule as well.

“I’m either going through something and I just need my hoodie on so I can think better or process these things, or it’s just cold,” Barnes said.

Destiny Vasquez, a junior at George Washington High School in the East Side neighborhood, said she felt insulted when school officials warned her about wearing a bandanna, which she said they viewed as “a gang-related thing” rather than a part of Chicano culture.

Not all students and parents agreed that all bans on headwear or hoodies were problematic.

Tiara Fields, a senior at Uplift Community High School in Uptown, and her mother, Karonda Locust, said they understand why bonnets or do-rags may be unwelcome at school, since both view those items as loungewear meant to be worn at home. Locust, the Local School Council chair, said she views such restrictions as helping students learn to conform to rules they will need to observe in the workplace.

Fields, who is Black, said she is happy her high school allows students to wear headwraps, an item often banned elsewhere. Being welcome to wear a headwrap to protect her hair, she said, makes her feel like she can express her identity freely and fully at school.

“Because there are times I can’t wear that without being seen some type of way,” Fields said.

The same is true for a Muslim friend who wears a headscarf as a religious observance, she said. “She wears her hijab, too, and we can express our culture,” Fields said.

Cathy Cohen, a professor at the University of Chicago and founder of the Black Youth Project, said dress code restrictions sometimes limit who Black people can be and force them to leave distinctive parts of their culture out of certain spaces.

“Many school systems that have these types of dress codes believe in fact that they’re helping students, in particular Black students, to learn how to be ‘professional’ so they can succeed in a society that is predominantly white,” Cohen said. “But what they are also doing is replicating a set of norms that say that Blackness is other, that it’s less than. And that the only way to succeed is to conform instead of resist. And I think that’s the wrong message to send to young Black people.”

‘A direct attack’

Adolescence is a sensitive, emotional and critical time for exploring identity, said Bonsai Bermúdez, who works through the Youth Empowerment Performance Project with LGBTQI+ young people experiencing homelessness.

When a person finds their family, school or religious institution is not affirming their gender identity or gender expression, they often leave, Bermúdez said.

“The suicide rate within this community is also pretty high, and part of people ending their lives is connected to not being affirmed in their truth,” Bermúdez said. “So, through that lens I think it’s a humongous responsibility of Chicago as a city, of the school system, to make sure that we are implementing practices that are responding” to that public health issue.

In fact, district guidelines related to supporting transgender and nonbinary students note that students have “the right to dress in a manner consistent with their gender identity” and school policies should not “restrict students’ clothing or appearance on the basis of gender.” The Chicago Board of Education has required since 2012 that schools’ dress codes be gender neutral.

Still, the Tribune identified 95 schools governed by district policies whose recent dress codes had separate rules based on a student’s gender, such as banning earrings for boys or spaghetti straps for girls. At least 18 schools that are exempt from the gender-neutral requirement also have such policies. At least 329 schools, including 89 charter schools, set specific uniforms in their dress codes.

Emily Jade Aguilar, now a 22-year-old youth organizer at Communities United, came out as transgender during her junior year at Steinmetz College Prep in Belmont Cragin, where she said a new, strict uniform policy made an already painful time even more difficult.

All students had to wear a green polo shirt and khaki pants, which Aguilar said didn’t allow her to fully express herself and be comfortable in her body.

Aguilar said she’d already had trouble in middle school with workers reproaching her for experimenting with lip gloss and nail polish. But so many things she dealt with during high school were traumatic — including the dress code and not being able to use the girls’ bathroom — that she became suicidal, she said.

“In hindsight, if we didn’t have uniforms, or if we didn’t have those staff members, kind of like giving us eyes or not creating a safe space for us, I feel like my development as a young trans youth could have definitely been a lot better,” she said.

Aguilar said some schools now have dress code policies that are more responsive to students’ needs. But strict uniforms and clothing bans tied to stereotypes remain a problem, she said.

“Like, trans people, what does that tell them? You aren’t fit for this. This is not your body, you aren’t who you want to be,” Aguilar said. “That’s a direct attack on that community when you’re doing this, when you have these policies in place.”

Iván Perez, a parent member of the Local School Council at Palmer Elementary in Albany Park, said students pressed to move away from a uniform last year, saying they wanted to be trusted to make their own decisions about what to wear.

A number of students joined a call with members of the council, including one who shared the importance of young people being able to fully express themselves from the LGBTQ perspective, Perez said. The adults told themselves: “Don’t come in with your baggage,” he said. “We just listened … then decided, how do we address this.”

Ultimately the school decided to require students to cover certain body parts and to prohibit profanity, but to allow nearly anything else. The school implemented the new policy in August and “nobody has raised anything” since, Perez said. “There are no issues.”

Taking away class time

When Khan came to EPIC Academy two years ago as executive director, she said students were held to a strict “no nonsense” dress code policy. Failure to comply could get a student booted from class.

The belief was that stricter rules lead to better student outcomes, she said. But when Khan took a look at the South Chicago charter school’s discipline data, she found that nearly half of the student body had missed class to serve an in-school suspension in the 2017-18 school year, usually for dress code or cellphone violations, she said.

“That just creates this tension … between students and teachers that makes it harder to relationship-build,” Khan said, adding that enforcing dress code policies “takes away time from helping students with actual academic-based problems.”

Khan said she slowly began relaxing parts of the dress code and classroom removal is no longer an option for a dress code violation at EPIC.

Though EPIC has changed course, the Tribune identified 53 schools subject to district rules that have noted in recent dress code policies that violations may lead to loss of instructional or class time. More than 40 charters and other exempt schools did the same.

In some cases, policies state that repeated violations or wearing colors affiliated with gangs will result in removal from class or in-school suspensions. Others say that students may be immediately sent to a school office if they are out of compliance with the dress code and that the students must change or put on additional clothing before returning to class.

It’s unclear how many CPS students have been disciplined for their attire. Chicago Public Schools tracks violations of the student code of conduct but does not have a specific incident category for dress code- and uniform-related incidents.

Abril Morales, now a senior at Farragut Career Academy in Little Village, said she has seen classmates lose substantial learning time over clothing violations. When she was in middle school, she said, one friend was sent to the office daily because of the pink trim on her black shoes.

Morales also recalled that on a day when she arrived at school wearing a red dress with black tights, she was immediately diverted to the front office and told not to wear those colors again because of a gang association. Morales said she missed only five minutes of class, but the incident affected her relationship with adults at the school.

“It kind of made me feel disappointed in the staff of the school because they should know that I go to school to learn, not to cause trouble or anything,” she said. “And for them to like associate that with me, I don’t know, it kind of did bring me down a bit.”

Tina Curry, a Chicago teacher and adjunct professor at DePaul University and National Louis University, said that when she used to teach at Goode, students who violated the dress code would have to sit in the dean’s office all day, missing class. She also said some students used to be required to change into embarrassing loaner uniforms before the school stopped that practice.

Curry said she saw students return to class following dress code issues and put their heads down on their desks in defeat.

“In that moment that child is opting out of learning,” Curry said. “He feels what has happened to him is not fair, it’s not just, so he’s going to opt out of learning today.”

Tribune reporters Tatyana Turner and Cecilia Reyes contributed to this story.

ehoerner@chicagotribune.com