You walk through the halls and hear another pair of footsteps following yours. Suddenly, you’re stopped and escorted to the office for what you’re wearing.

Junior Ruby Castillo feels being dress-coded is unfair and most of the time people aren’t addressed appropriately in this situation. Castillo says the school faculty only target “unflattering people.”

“They tell us we’re adults, but they limit our attire,” Castillo said. They should allow us to wear “sheer shirts, and tank tops.”

JROTC Master Sgt. Oscar Rios said, “there is no place for sheer shirts” at school. Because girls often don’t wear undershirts this sometimes leads to showing undergarments or too much skin.

Rules about dress code limit our style and our originality significantly. The principals tell us to be who we are, and to not be afraid of what people think, but how can we do that if they want us to wear what they say?

Senior Jeffery Wade Barry took a stand on this situation. Barry was recently dress-coded for his shirt, which stated the second Amendment, “The Right to Bear Arms”, in the shape of an AK-47.

“We should have our rights to choose what we wear,” Barry said. “They treat us like kids when we’re really young adults.”

When administrators saw his shirt they decided to suspend him for the rest of the day. He wore the same shirt the next day as a form of protest. When spotted by the administrators he was sent to the office and suspended for three days.

Barry said his shirt was not distracting to his classmates, or causing a scene. When Barry asked them if he was allowed to protest, he was told no because it wasn’t his right.

In the Austin ISD dress code guide it says, “Clothing may not advertise, condone, depict, or promote the use of alcohol, tobacco, or drugs; also prohibited is clothing with vulgar or obscene language, or with images or writings that promote disruption of the educational setting.” Barry’s shirt wasn’t affecting anyone near him, or violating any of these Austin ISD rules.

There have been plenty of court cases involving students who have tried to sue their school because they didn’t permit any type of text on shirts that wasn’t affiliated with school. They felt their rights were being taken away at school.

Many of these cases were dismissed simply because judges felt the schools had the right to ask people with vulgar offensive terms to remove or change their shirts. In the case Boroff v. Van Wert City Board of Education, Judge Ronald Lee says, “In sum, the Supreme Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence prohibits school officials from telling a student that he cannot wear a certain T-shirt simply because they perceive that the T-shirt is communicating a message with which they disagree.”

In order to solve this situation, administrators should be lenient on our dress code but know where to draw the line. Nothing that shows too much skin, and nothing that distracts students from learning.