Dallas School Dress Code May Ban Tucked-In Shirts Over Obesity Concerns

Dallas school dress code may be amended soon to disallow tucked-in shirts. Though they wouldn’t come right out and say it, the idea is that if a shirt isn’t tucked in, a child with obesity will appear slimmer … or something.

Dallas ISD trustees are considering dropping the tucked-in shirt requirement of the school dress code because it can highlight overweight children’s physiques in a negative way. MSNnotes that the word “overweight” never was actually used in the official language. Rather “body type that was different” and “fluffy” were used.

“For a middle-school student, it could be a self-esteem issue if they are made to tuck in their shirt because if they wear it loose, their healthiness might not show as much,” said Board President Lew Blackburn.

Though the Dallas Observer notes that trustees actually have a hugely important decision to make regarding who to keep and who to fire among their principals (which they have delayed twice already) they had a very complex discussion about the dress code, which covered leggings (they are not pants) shirts (no mid-drifts, ladies) and earrings on boys.

“They should be banned,” Bernadette Nutall decided. “Boys should not be wearing earrings.”

“What about the gauges?” Adam Medrano asked. “A lot of kids have the gauges where they’re stretching their ear.”

No gauges.

Luckily, freshman board member Dan Micciche admitted that he didn’t understand why they were spending so much time talking about the Dallas schools’ dress code.

“I can’t believe that this is actually a (board) policy. … I just think it’s way too detailed,” he said, advocating letting the administration decide dress code policy.

But still, that conversation happened. Welcome to state-level bureaucracy, Mr. Micciche.

[Image via: sunabesyou, Shutterstock]