Freedom From Polos

Many students may have heard in form meetings about a potential new addition to the school dress code: non-collared Seabury spirit t-shirts that can be worn regularly at school, not just on game days or by athletes. These changes, however, have not been discussed very much yet other than in October’s form meetings, when the Senate representatives asked their grades what types of dress code changes they might want or if they would wear a Seabury spirit t-shirt to school if it became part of the dress code.
Senate representative Aris Grady says that a teacher suggested changes to dress code, and the Student Senate ultimately decided to write a proposal that includes the possible addition of a new dress code-friendly spirit wear shirt. Grady says that they wrote this “after a lot of discussion and tweaking in the meetings and with our grades,” indicating that this idea has been in the works for a while in Student Senate, but she says it may still be uncertain for at least the rest of this school year. She personally is not sure when the change will take place, saying that the speed of the progress is mainly dependent on Dr. Schawang, but guesses that “there will need to be a discussion of how it will be enforced and executed” and that, if approved, the proposed change would take effect “probably at minimum [at] the beginning of next school year.”
Senior Sabrina Eicher says that the Senate proposed this idea after students began evaluating their day-to-day dress code experiences and discussing realistic ideas for improving the dress code at Seabury. Currently, the policy is that athletes may wear a spirit wear shirt for their sport to school on a day when they have a game, but students who are not in that sport are still required to wear ordinary dress code. With these changes, the Senate may design a new spirit shirt specifically for everyday wear. Since the idea was originally proposed, Eicher says, “[student senators] have been trying to figure out if the student body is in favor of the dress code t-shirt idea.”
The idea of a new, standard spirit t-shirt has not been publicized very much through announcements or emails: Eicher explains that the Senate wants to get peoples’ opinions on these changes before it makes anything official or discusses them with the entire school. The proposal was also mentioned on the new official Seabury Senate Instagram page, which asked followers if they would wear this new Seabury shirt to school and mentioned writing the proposition to change the rules for spirit wear and hair color.
This idea is still in its preliminary planning stages while Student Senate analyzes each grade’s reaction to the proposition and any input received in form meetings. Grady says, “If others like it, that’s what matters, because Senate is all about representing the school and our individual grades.”