Due to staggering reports of inappropriately clad students last year, the administration made a decision to buckle down on the current dress code.
Southern Lehigh principal Mrs. Christine Siegfried knew that the problem had broken the threshold when she received multiple complaints from teachers who were uncomfortable with the way students were dressing during class.
“The thing that really hit home was when I had male teachers come to me and tell me that they were very uncomfortable in their classrooms teaching young ladies who were inappropriately dressed for school,” Siegfried said in a press conference with the Spotlight staff earlier this month.
Throughout the first week of school, Mrs. Siegfried met with all students to inform them that the dress code would be strictly enforced. Female students were also warned at an assembly at the end of the previous school year, and all students were notified through a letter sent home to their parents over the summer.
At the beginning of the year, Mrs. Siegfried was disappointed by the lack of response to the dress code enforcement; however, after admonishing several students throughout the first week of school, she found students to be more cooperative.
“I will say that now, it seems to be better,” Siegfried said about the student response. “We have sent students home, we have called parents, and I do feel that teachers were very much on top of it the first week.”
While some students are outraged by the new policies or believe that, although it’s important, the dress code is being taken too seriously, others feel that enforcing the dress code is for the better.
“It’s not as big a deal as they make it out to be,” freshman Naomi Li said.
The administration thanks students for their cooperation, and looks forward to a new era of well-dressed students at Southern Lehigh High School.
