Bolles has always had a dress code, from its military days to today. Most students find a way to express themselves within the dress code’s parameters, but it is more difficult this year with the changes implemented for the 2023-24 school year.

The new dress code completely gets rid of the college sweatshirt item and tightens the regulation of skirts for girls. The Bugle asked students of all grades for their thoughts on the changes. Of the 50 students who participated, 6% approved of the changes while 94% were not pleased by them.

The main problem students had with the new dress code was the removal of the college/university sweatshirts. In the students’ opinion, the sweatshirt item didn’t cause any problems with the dress code and it was the best thing about it. Many students would wear sweatshirts every day to school, so now they feel disappointed.

When asked about the removal of the sweatshirts, Ms. Denmark says, “Dress code compliance by students was low.” She explained that it had become “almost impossible to manage the sweatshirt piece, and so we are just going back to a simpler dress code that we’ve had previously.”

The deans stated that students would try to find loopholes for college sweatshirts like wearing a fraternity sweatshirt from an older brother, wearing unofficial merchandise, or wearing sweatshirts with generic “college” insignias.

Another problem some students had was the change in skirt lengths from mid thigh to not past the fingertips. According to Ms. Denmark, the shift doesn’t really change anything. It is simply easier to measure skirts based on where students’ fingertips land. “We’re not going to check somebody’s femur bone,” she said.

Finally, students wondered with all the changes, why didn’t Bolles add anything new, such as shorts for boys? Many male students think that it’s unfair that female students get to have the option to wear skirts or pants, while boys only have the option to wear pants.

This argument comes up every year when Bolles is creating any changes to the dress code but always gets shot down. There are two reasons for this: one is the kids at the lower and middle school campuses are allowed to wear shorts because they play outside, but in upper school we do not play outside, which leaves no functional use for shorts. The second reason is that Bolles is a college prep school, and Bolles simply finds shorts to be unprofessional.

Similar to the ‘no shorts” rule, the stricter guidelines for the sweatshirts and skirts are designed to encourage Bolles students to present themselves as serious and professional.