A buzz has been going around about the student handbook and the dress code.  Some students are concerned with the topic of bandanas.  Recently wearing bandanas has become more popular, and students have been getting in trouble. The real question is, why can’t students wear them and does it matter if it is a male or female?
Some students believe that female students get away with it more than male students.  sophomore Genuine Matthews believes the whole situation is sexist.
“Teachers don’t enforce it on girls because they don’t look like they’re in gangs”, said Matthews.
Matthews and some of his friends believe the principals and staff aren’t doing much to look more into this situation.
“They’re just blowing it off,” he said and he thinks it’s a double standard.
Principal Doug Austin, who was hired in June, explained the history behind the dress-code rules, which include hats, tank-tops, and bandanas. The bandana rule specifically started coming in place around the late 1990s and early 2000s all over the nation, because there was gang affiliation with bandanas and most schools just didn’t want to take any risks. St. Francis soon adopted this rule as well.
Austin has not had any direct contact with students about this issue, but has heard people are getting frustrated.
“Rules should be consistent across the board,” he said, “yet there are some gray areas.”
Austin wants it to be  as fair as possible, so he has been sending out emails to teachers that they should be enforcing these policies.  However, even he is not sure the policy is still relevant.
“I struggle with some,” said Austin, “especially with fashion statements that can go in and out”.
Overall he believes it is a difficult topic to handle because it is all judgement calls.
People have different views on certain policies, like the bandana, and just don’t enforce it as much as they could.  In some cases teachers or students don’t even know about certain rules.
For example, during homecoming week many girls wore them for certain theme days or they wore them to school because they like to wear them prior to the football games. But the administration is trying to get a handle on the confusion with the policies and make sure everything is fair across the board.
“You have to be consistent with males and females,” said Austin, “and that is the real challenge.”