By Julia Moss
After her sister Sami Wilson, a middle school student, was cited for a dress code violation on January 29, IHS senior Cydney Wilson immediately took to social media to denounce the school and its actions and launched a petition on Change.org to challenge the policy.
Cydney’s petition calling for a change to the dress code now has 753 signatures currently. She posted the link to her petition in the Irvington town Facebook group, called 10533, and some community members were outraged and called for change to the policy
According to Sami, a teacher deemed her outfit, a cropped sweater with a wide neck, to be a violation of the school’s dress code and she was asked to go to the office.
Superintendent Kris Harrison released a statement on February 1st, that read, “We are aware of the concern regarding our district’s present dress code and we want to help.”
He went on to say, “School dress codes are never easy […] we want to get it right and we will be working with our students and stakeholders to do just that.”
A reporter for the New York Post, Doree Lewak, heard about the story through a friend who is a member of the 10533 group, and contacted Cydney for comment. On February 2nd, she posted the article on the New York Post’s website titled “School officials shamed me for my ‘inappropriate’ sweater” about the dress code in Irvington.
Cydney is glad that the school responded, and thinks that these changes to the dress code are long overdue.
When asked what should happen next, she said, “I hope that the administration forms focus groups of students of all ages, ranging from 6th to 12th grade in order to get together and write a brand new dress code that reflects the values of our community and prioritizes learning.”
She also believes the policy should “modernize the dress code to make it more acceptable for students in the 21st century.”
Administration has yet to announce how they will be getting student input for the new dress code or when a new dress code will be implemented.
