Alameda schools dramatically loosen dress code for coming school year

ALAMEDA, Calif. (KGO) -- The Alameda Unified School District has decided to stop being the clothing police. The district has dramatically loosened its dress code for the coming school year.

It's a trial program, but one district officials hope will reduce the inherent discrimination they believe came with their old policies.

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That said, not everyone is pleased with the change. "Spaghetti straps will be OK, short shorts will be OK," explained Susan Davis, spokesperson for the Alameda Unified School District.

Davis explained it's a new pilot program designed to enhance student freedoms, while reducing the "body shaming" the district believes came with their previous dress code.

"So when you're looking at things like how short are your shorts, are your shoulders showing, is your cleavage showing, that really means that girls are being punished more often and losing class time more often than a boy," said Davis.

"It's not really that enforced anyway," said incoming freshman Nicole Cramer, as she and her father left Alameda High after picking up her registration packet.

"Sometimes my friends would get sent home just for having ripped jeans and they couldn't get back because they're parents were at work," said Cramer."

But others worry the dress code won't be a positive in the classroom.

"No, that's not OK. I think they should dress appropriate," said Chandra Thompson, the mother of an Alameda High sophomore.

"Not a crop top, not a tank top. It should be covered up, especially girls," said Thompson's daughter, Nalani. "Because boys might get the wrong message."

Alameda's new policy isn't 100 percent anything goes. Anything that could be considered hate speech or pornographic is strictly prohibited.

Otherwise, school officials believe it's up to parents to police their kids and they don't worry about the new policy producing distractions in the classroom.

"I think it's a good thing because now they can show who they are really are and what they want to wear and stuff like that," said student Brian Belt, who assured us, whatever the girls are wearing, his focus this coming school year will be strictly on his studies.