REGION — How to update the language outlining the district’s dress code was considered by the Wachusett Regional School District Committee at its regular meeting in August.

District Superintendent James Reilly led a presentation on the proposed language, developed by Deputy Superintendent Jane Day working with school principals and district legal counsel.

The code has gone through several iterations during an interactive process, Reilly said, and while most people are happy with the language, there is still work to do.

The goal of setting a dress code is to promote a respectful learning environment, with consideration for safety where clothing does not interfere with the successful and safe completion of learning activities, according to Reilly’s presentation.

It should also lead to an equitable and inclusive learning environment where the dress code does not negatively impact any group based on race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, religion, disability, socio-economic status and/or body type or size, Reilly said.

The district also needs to come to an understanding on how the dress code will be applied and enforced.

School Committee member Matt Lavoie said that in terms of socio-economic status, some students may not have control over the clothes that are available to them. He wondered how the district could support those individuals from a budgetary perspective.

Jonathan Krol, Director of Social/Emotional Learning and Guidance, who was not present at the meeting, would best be able to answer this question, Reilly said. There could be a discussion if clothing would be available to the students.

“Right now, to be honest with you, I don’t have a good grasp of what we have in place to support our students who may have needs,” he said. “I do think it’s an important question, though.”

Committee member Linda Long-Bellil said the board should make clear the difference between a good policy and the district that implements it.

“We can have a good policy, but if it’s implemented incorrectly, that’s a problem, and it sounds like there were some implementation issues that are a concern,” she said.

“I do worry about what I see, in the young people I know, the intense pressure they are under in our culture to look super sexy all the time,” she said. “I worry that these messages come from everywhere: social media, TV, entertainment.”

Long-Bellil said she would like to see school be a safe place where that pressure is minimized, not maximized.

She noted that it was a difficult issue but it needed to be addressed.

During the public comment portion of the meeting which preceded the presentation, two parents, Corey Burnham Howard of Princeton and Sarah Lefebvre of Paxton, offered opinions on dress code changes, language and enforcement.

Burnham Howard became interested in school dress codes when her daughters started elementary school in the district. They are now in high school.

When her eldest was in Grade 2 and her youngest in kindergarten, their principal set up an easel in the school lobby, depicting what clothing was acceptable for students to wear.

The display included clipped photos of girls in shorts and tank tops, showing which clothing items were allowed, based in part on width of straps and length of shorts.

"Seeing this display was a moment when my 6- and 8-year-olds first felt shame related to their females bodies and clothing choices," Burnham Howard said, adding that it was a moment when they felt discrimination based on their gender.

Although dress codes are intended to create a safe learning environment in schools, they often discriminate based on gender and culture, and their enforcement has a profoundly negative effect of shaming, objectifying, and sexualizing students and robbing them of instructional time, she said.

She read a list of Paxton Center School dress code restrictions that included hats, bandanas, chains, distracting or revealing items, bare midriffs, exposed cleavage, tank tops with straps less than two inches wide, tube tops, spaghetti straps, low rider slacks, muscle shirts, short-shorts, or skirt hem shorter than fingertip length when the child’s arm is extended by their side.

Burnham Howard said that what is disruptive can be subjective, and legal limitations such as violations of first amendment rights should be considered.

Sarah Lefebvre has a child at PCS and is herself a teacher at Wachusett Regional High School.

She expressed concern about the discriminatory nature of enforcement of the dress code. Based on parents whose kids have been “dress-coded” this past spring at PCS, this dress code is outdated, she said.

The dress code negatively impacts female students more than males, Lefebvre said, and other district schools enforce their policies in various degrees.

She asked the school committee to come to a consensus on the policy.