NYC Public schools have been caught in scandals regarding dress code. “People are being punished for the way they decide to express themselves,” said one student who was interviewed on their view of dress code by By Akithma Moraes | for the Staten Island Advance.

Dress code has been a way to instill the idea that the way women dress “Victim blaming“ puts the responsibility of a crime, trauma, or hardship on the victim and not the perpetrator. The body parts targeted could be a shoulder or a knee.  Many female students also believe it is unfair that they have to suffer the consequences of these rules.  

A student was interviewed on their views for dress code and their opinion on why they don’t think dress code is treated fairly between students.

“Boys walk around with shorts all the time, but when girls do it, it’s wrong. It’s not our fault men can’t concentrate when it comes to women’s necks or legs, or even arms — which is totally creepy,” said Yasmin Ladraa, a senior in an interview with Silive news.

A school environment should protect kids, but it is teaching young girls that what they wear is the problem, not that teenagers  get easily distracted and instead of continuing the lesson they focus on this instead. 

Oxford Languages defines rape culture “a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse.” 

Here in UAM we do not have a dress code policy. However some female and female identifying students feel that our dress code is reasonable, even though some staff members may question their clothing choices, which could be seen as victim blaming. 

When asked about the steps taken when an assault is reported, UAM Assistant Principal Daniel Trinidad responded, “So it’s my job and my team’s job to identify what the next steps are going to be. And that’s based on a variety of factors, how old the student is, have they done this before? Where did this take place?”