Dress codes vary around the world, especially between schools in the same area. The first dress code law to arise in the United States came from Tinker vs. Des Moines in 1969. The law allowed schools to prohibit any clothing or accessories that may disrupt the learning environment. Some students in the U.S. are protesting against these dress codes because they see it as unjust.

One of the most recent protests happened at San Benito High School in California. On the first day of school on August 10th, approximately 50 female students got in trouble for wearing shirts that exposed their shoulders. The male students decided to protest for what they see as treating the female students unfairly due to the dress code policy. Around 3,000 students, several of which were male students, wore off-shoulder tops as an act of protest.

There were videos and pictures of the protest posted on social media sites such as Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram. The posts went viral and were even featured on one of Snapchat’s “Daily Mail” articles.

What puzzled the students was that, although the dress code did exist, it was not enforced by the school until this year. A 16-year old junior at San Benito High School told Yahoo News, “The dress code policy hasn’t been an issue the past two years I have been here.”

After hearing what the students were protesting against, the high school’s principal, Adrian Ramirez, stated to Yahoo News, “We would never blame a female student for another student being distracted by something they wore. The other thing is as a school, we should be looking back and looking at how consistently we address the dress code across campus, and that’s something else students have brought up.”

Mr. Ramirez was understanding and decided to bring this matter up in the next faculty meeting. He also wants to reform the dress code school policy at San Benito High School.