With every year comes new enforcement of dress-code rules and regulations. This year, Plant has new administrative staff. Kimi Hellenberg begins her role as principal and introduces the dress code at each grade level’s “town hall” meeting. This year, however, differs from others in that males have been affected almost as much as female students. 

According to the student code of conduct book from the Hillsborough County Public School website, dress code violations are a level four infraction. A level four infraction is “relatively minor misbehavior or general classroom disruption that interferes with the orderly educational process in the classroom or other areas.”  The level 4 infractions include possession, use, or sale of alcohol, dressing disruptively, falsifying records, violating school rules, and possessing, using, or selling tobacco.   

The Hillsborough County schools handbook defines the dress code as “the dress and grooming of students shall be that which contributes to the health and safety of the individual and which is non-disruptive of the educational activities and processes of a school. The definition of the appropriate dress shall vary with the student’s age, the program of instruction, and the heating/cooling system.” The only garments explicitly banned in the handbook are clothes that expose undergarments, inappropriate shoes for physical education classes, and clothing with vulgar content.  

However, Plant’s dress code bans tank tops, shorts above fingertip length, and midriff; most of the clothing teenage girls wear daily in Florida’s tropical climate, in a school with limited air conditioning.   

The current disciplinary measures taken for a violation of the dress code at Plant are Parent/Guardian Conference, one day of ISS, restorative practices, and change of clothes.  

During the first week of this school year, senior Serena Bassart was dress coded when walking to her class. “So, it was one of the first days of school. I was walking from my homeroom to my first period, I had been at school for less than an hour, and I was wearing a shirt that showed less than three fingers of my midriff and three fingers of my shoulders were covered. I was walking in the jam-packed main hallway when my shoulder was tapped, then grabbed and walked to the side of the clump of many students. An AP told me, ‘You cannot wear that.’ I wasn’t aware of that and assumed my outfit was well within the dress code, based on last year’s rules. I was then late to class because I had to walk all the way out to the parking lot to get a jacket to cover up.” Bassart said. 

 Similarly, senior Boss Brandon was wearing a white tank top for 2000’s day when he received a dress code violation. “I definitely feel like the school dress code has gotten stricter, but I don’t really mind that much because there is not a lot that boys can’t wear, but I feel like the rules should be bent a little for traditions like senior sunrise, but I don’t really mind there being a dress code.” Brandon said.