Like all high schools, Frederick High has a dress code. The aim of the dress code at Frederick High is to make the school a safe place for students and staff while allowing individual student expression.
To this point, any type of traditional clothing (top and bottoms) is allowed at Frederick High as long as it obscures from view the private personal areas of the person at all times (i.e., the nipples, the gluteal cleft, and the entirety of the pubic region). Students with mesh or partially see-through clothing must make sure that their private areas are still hidden from view. This rule (as well as all other points of the dress code) applies to all genders equally — males cannot be shirtless on campus.
Shoes are required to be worn. While sandals without a heel are acceptable footwear, students may not wear slippers outside of certain spirit days.
Frederick High recognizes hair as an important mode of expression, and students may style and color their hair however they choose, both during school days and school events like Graduation.
Students have no limits on the amount of jewelry and piercings they display so long that these items don’t become a distraction to the learning environment. Students may also openly display tattoos and other body art so long as they do not violate other school policies (see below).
As Frederick High hopes to prepare students for adult life and the workplace, the Frederick High admin recommends that students try to dress “business casual” when on campus.
Dress Code Limitations: School Policies
An important facet of the dress code policy is that it comes secondary to all school and district policies concerning student safety. These policies (and not the dress code per se) put additional reasonable limitations on items of apparel.
Drug and Alcohol Paraphernalia
To comply with school policy requiring a drug-free campus, students may not wear apparel promoting the use of tobacco, nicotine, marijuana, alcohol, or illegal substances as defined by the district. This includes clothing items with a cigarette or beer brand and clothing depicting a marijuana leaf.
Gang Prevention
To comply with school policy regarding gang involvement, students may not wear apparel that Frederick PD has determined is associated with local gangs or gang violence. This includes bandanas worn anywhere but the head, students wearing standalone chains as apparel, and students dressing from head to toe in a solid color (especially red, green, blue, or purple). As gang culture changes over time, these restrictions may change.
Safe Student Speech
To comply with school policy regarding safe speech, no student apparel may display obscene words or graphics, and student clothing may not contain speech or images that target any protected class of students or make them feel unsafe and unwelcome. Student clothing may express political speech so long as it isn’t discriminatory in any fashion.
Similarly, students may not wear clothing that makes reference to sexual acts or explicit sexual desires. Apparel that recognizes one’s gender identity is allowed, as it focuses on who a student is and not acts that are inappropriate to discuss in a public forum.
Safe Student Environments
To comply with school policies concerning student safety, students may not wear apparel that depicts acts of violence or features weapons of violence (guns, knives, axes, spiked bats, etc.). This extends to clothing depicting media from video games, films, television, music lyrics, album art, and photography.
To also comply with safety policies, some classes may have additional clothing requirements to protect students from potential harm. One example is our physical education classes, which require students to dress in clothing that allows students to be active. Another example is our stage technology courses, which require closed-toe shoes to protect against foot injuries.
Teachers are also given a degree of autonomy within their classrooms and may ask students to remove or adjust clothing if it is considered a distraction to the learning environment.
Dress Code Exception: Student Spirit
The same dress code that applies to students on campus during the school day applies to off-campus school events (like field trips and online learning) and after-school events like athletic games.
For the sake of student safety, students at these events must be able to be easily recognized. Face painting at athletic games is fine and even encouraged, but no full face masks are allowed at events.
At the discretion of the Frederick admin team, some dress code limitations may be lifted on specific pre-planned spirit days. For example, students typically may dress in solid colors on Class Color Day, and students may wear slippers as footwear on Pajama Day.
Dress Code Exception: Halloween
In addition to the regular student dress code, the following criteria apply to students who choose to dress in a costume on Halloween or for a similar school event:
- Students may not wear costumes depicting controversial or divisive figures (e.g., Adolf Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer), nor may they wear costumes that can be perceived as discriminatory toward a protected class of people (e.g., a Klansman or blackface).
- As students must be able to be easily recognized, no full face masks or full face paint is allowed.
- Wigs and hoods must be secured to the head and may not cover the face.
- Costumes may not include fake weapons.
- Any “blood” on a costume must be dried and not spread to school property.
- Costumes should not fall apart and leave debris on school property (this includes glitter).
- Inflatable costumes are not allowed.
- Halloween costumes must not interrupt the normal function of the school day. For example, students may have additional accessories to complete their costume (e.g., a picnic basket for a Little Red Riding Hood costume), but they may be taken by staff if they become a class distraction.
