Spring is coming.  However, one rule has to be followed when spring does reveal itself: Don’t go over the edge with your outfits by revealing yourself.

At least, this is what MCPS wants you to think and, upon closer inspection, it is good advice.

The MCPS requirements for the dress code are often broken when the weather gets warmer. When it gets warmer, more skin starts to show and people don’t follow the dress code, which is mainly because they feel the rules are asking for too much, and they don’t need to follow them.

This is the wrong way of thinking.  The fact is, the MCPS dress code doesn’t ask for much. MCPS doesn’t tell students to altogether not wear a certain style, MCPS doesn’t tell students they cannot own specific clothes, and MCPS doesn’t tell students what to wear.  All the county asks for is for students to make smart decisions.

Students can wear just about anything they want as long as it does not have inappropriate words or pictures on it. If a student has a favorite shirt with a nasty saying on it or a half-dressed girl on it, MCPS does not restrict owning the item; they just ask you not to wear it to school. This is the key point – MCPS doesn’t tell you what clothes to buy; they just ask you to keep some of your more risqué or inappropriate clothing at home.

Some students say, that the rules are asking for too much. However, rules only need to be followed during school. After school is when kids can show off and wear whatever they want. School isn’t a fashion show. Some students feel that having a dress code is the same as having a uniform, but this isn’t true. The MCPS dress code allows much more than any school that has uniforms. For example, the dress code says you must wear shoes, which means any shoes you want.  In most private schools, students aren’t able to wear all types of shoes like sandals, but in MCPS sandals are allowed. MCPS is not asking for too much and, in fact, leaves students with a wide variety of clothing to wear and opportunities to express themselves.