The Smoky Hill Graduation information pamphlet, given to seniors and their families in a mandatory senior meeting in April, has an entire section dedicated to what seniors must wear under their robes. That’s right, the school still cares what you wear, even if it is under a giant green robe.

This is not the controversy, however. The real problem that many students are finding is that anyone who identifies as a girl is obligated to wear a dress. As someone who identifies as a girl, and has never felt comfortable in a dress, I am a little thrown off by it.

I am not the only one who feels that this overly-traditional request is too invasive to ask of us. At the original senior meeting in the auditorium, we were walked through our many pages of information, and as we went through the pamphlet, the mother of another student sitting behind me very vulgarly pointed out that even she didn’t have to wear a dress under her robes, “so many years ago.”

The idea of a dress code while actually in school I can wrap my head around, and even to the extent of “no booty shorts” under the robes; but when it comes to dictating that we can only wear a certain type of clothing, that is an entirely different story.

We are not a uniform-wearing school. If someone wants to wear a dress to school they can, but they can also wear pants and a shirt if they want to do that, too. I don’t see why this important milestone in all of our lives should be any different.

Personally, I’ve tried my best to oblige by every single rule leading up to graduation, in fear that my privilege to walk at graduation will be revoked and I will have to make some very awkward phone calls to distant family members.
This, however, is something that I am not going to do, and I urge others to do the same. If you want to wear a dress, go for it, but don’t feel that you have to.