According to the Central Hardin High School handbook, “Statements, slogans, images or insignia that harass, threaten, intimidate, demean, suggest violence, or sexual innuendo and/or creates a reasonable risk of substantial influence of the educational process, i.e. The Confederate Flag, Swastikas, etc. or other clothing deemed intolerant based upon Federal Title IX guidelines, is not permitted.” 

Above this statement, “Clothing, jewelry, and accessories that bear the following:” is written, insinuating that these rules only apply to clothing, not vehicles. This is understandable because vehicles are not clothes. However, when this section mentions accessories, this could mean stickers and flags, which are presented on some students’ vehicles. A question that has been at the forefront of my mind since the beginning of school: why are things not permitted on clothing, accessories, etc., but the cars in the school parking lot – which are still located on campus grounds – are allowed to have stickers or flags that fall under the same category?

Looking at the sections of the parent/student handbook located on the Central Hardin High School website, there is one section dedicated to the rules that follow the vehicles. At no point is there anywhere in the section of the handbook that states violence or anything of that nature in the dress code, is not permitted on students’ vehicles. The point of the dress code is to create a comfortable and welcoming environment for students, right? So why is it that our clothing is so harmful to students that some are sent home, but the Confederate Flag and gun stickers located just a few hundred feet away are not?

Violence, racism, etc. are not tolerated to be worn, yet we are allowed to express them in other ways and there seem to be no consequences for these actions. When the dress code comes into the picture, it’s a completely different story. All the time students are reprimanded for breaking the dress code, whether for a shoulder being out, a belly button being shown, a sliver of thigh out, or even for cleavage being slightly visible. 

The reason swastikas and the Confederate flag are not to be expressed on clothes is to protect and value the feelings of other students. So digging deeper into the fact of clothes vs. vehicles, the problem is that one is a visible distraction during school hours for other students and teachers, meaning that their feelings could be affected and even their learning process. The other is not in sight of students or staff during learning time. The other is located outside, in the parking lot. 

“At some point, I have to draw a line…that becomes a very subjective thing,” principal Tim Issacs said in a recent interview with The Central Times staff.

Isaacs went on to explain that the 1969 Tinker vs. Des Moines School District Supreme Court ruling established that students’ freedom of speech is protected at school but restricted if the speech disrupts the educational process.

According to uscourts.gov, “In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court’s majority ruled that neither students nor teachers ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.’ The Court took the position that school officials could not prohibit only on the suspicion that the speech might disrupt the learning environment.”

So if students are not allowed to have things like nudity or weapons on clothing, why is it okay on cars?

“That’s when it comes in the building and becomes a disruption to the educational process,” Isaacs said.

Do student’s feelings stop outside of the school building? If we are looking into the matter that clothing is distracting and a sensitive topic for some students, so are vehicles. Since students are parked for all school hours on the school premises, then the problem needs to be resolved so that all student’s and teachers’ feelings are valued outside of the building like they are in the building. 

However, if certain students and staff are distracted by a simple shoulder, then they are the problem. The dress code doesn’t need to be so strict that people are not allowed to wear off-the-shoulder shirts or show basic midriff.  There should be no point or time when wearing certain clothes influences people to act a certain way. 

The fact of the entire matter is that both the dress code and the vehicle rules need to be reevaluated.

Students should be able to wear certain pieces of clothing without ‘harming’ or ‘distracting’ others. While attending Central, students don’t need to have nudity and violence in their vehicles. 

If the Confederate flag is banned on clothing, it should be banned on vehicles.