How much skin can students show at school? Pasco seeks dress code clarity.

A rule on shirt length, which vexed school board members in the fall, is back for reconsideration.

Tampa Bay Times | By Jeffrey S. Solochek | April 3, 2024

LAND O’LAKES — The Pasco County School Board is getting ready to embark on another debate over the length of students’ shirts.

In a year marked by several hot button issues, from book challenges to parent permission slips, few items grabbed more of the board’s time than whether students should be allowed to have their midriffs exposed.

Board member Cynthia Armstrong first introduced the topic last spring with little prompting from students or staff. She argued that existing rules allowed tops that showed too much skin, and called for a revision mandating all shirts “extend to the waist.”

After hours of discussion, the board narrowly approved that change. As schools began implementing the new dress code in August though, the complaints poured in about aggressive enforcement that bordered on body shaming at some campuses, and confusion over its meaning at others.

Following additional lengthy debates, the board rescinded the change one month into the school year, saying it created unnecessary controversy. The conversation appeared to be over.

But as the district’s code of conduct committee began deliberating updates for the 2024-25 academic year, members couldn’t let it go. The issue that no one had talked about a year earlier stirred up questions that people now wanted answered.

“Multiple shareholders asked to address it,” said Melissa Musselwhite, the district’s director of student services. “They would like there to be more guidelines and really, clarity, because there was so much confusion this year.”

In its draft proposal, the group is not using as a cutoff point a student’s waist. That definition led some schools to ask students — primarily girls — to raise their arms above their heads to show where the hem line landed. Instead, the committee is focusing on shirts in relation to pants, suggesting that “shirts must have straps and extend to the waistband of pants/shorts/shirts.”

To avoid uncertainty, the committee also has prepared a drawing that shows what parts of the body it would expect to be covered by clothing (not undergarments). It shows covering from the shoulders down to the knees.

Superintendent Kurt Browning said he will take the committee’s recommendation, which still could change, to the board this spring.

“That’s the way the process works,” Browning said. “I trust the committee.”

But he did not have any enthusiasm for revisiting the topic, which he deemed a distraction when it first came up — and again when the board reversed course, forcing schools to change their dress code enforcement midyear.

“I don’t care about the dress code. Maybe I should,” Browning said, acknowledging the district must have some limits. “But there are so many bigger issues to deal with.”

Like improving attendance rates.

“I am grateful that kids are in school,” he said. “Whether a kid shows a little midriff, I’m not getting worked up about that.”

Board members, who split over the issue each time it came up for a vote, said they were open to another discussion about shirt length. Maybe some additional information might emerge to sway their views, they said.

Vice chairperson Alison Crumbley said it is only fair to have a standardized rule for all schools to follow. At the same time, she added, the existing dress code appears to address the issue.

“Unless they come up with something new, I’m pretty settled,” Crumbley said.

Chairperson Megan Harding, who opposed the mid-year revision, said she wants to hear what the code of conduct committee presents. “It’s our job to look at it,” Harding said.

Board member Al Hernandez provided the swing vote on the subject, initially backing the rule and then agreeing to pull it back. He noted that complaints came in from both sides about student dress, and contended it deserves more attention.

“I’m actually looking forward to this coming back to the board,” Hernandez said. “We cannot have ambiguity of what is expected.”

The board is expected to review the code of conduct in late April or early May.