The following letter from Mr. Tom Paulsen, principal, was mailed to the home of every NCHS student prior to the start of school. Each student received a copy of the formal district dress code at registration -- it is in their "red book" -- the Student-Parent Planner & Calendar for the year.If you have questions regarding this issue please contact Mr. Paulsen or one of our deans: Mr. Seiple, Mr. Wiesbrook, Mr. Hopkins, or Mrs. Lewis-Bajusz.
June, 2001
Dear NCHS Parents & Students:
The Naperville Central High School rules and regulations contained in a booklet known as “The Redbook,” has a section entitled “Dress and Grooming.” The elements of this section which pertain to the decency of clothing are as follows: “If in the judgement of school officials, modes of dress or appearance are distracting or disturbing to the progress of the educational program, the student and parent will be notified and the student will be required to change.” Another section reads: “No clothing considered to be revealing will be allowed on males or females. This would include, but not be limited to, bare midriffs, certain holes in clothing, low cut tops, and short shorts.” Please note the following additions for the 2001-02 school year: No shirts with bare backs, no one-shoulder shirts and no shirts with spaghetti straps will be allowed. Boys will not be allowed to wear sleeveless shirts. Also, no bare midriffs means if you raise your arms and the stomach shows, the top is unacceptable. The guidelines which are written give us some direction, but we would like to rely on the good sense of our parents and students so the issue of appropriate dress does not have to be confronted here in school.
We have noticed a growing number of our students who do not dress appropriately for school and do not follow these guidelines. Frankly, we at Naperville Central have not done as good a job as we could have in enforcing the rules related to student dress. The time is past due for us to make a concerted effort, with your assistance, to ensure that students are dressed appropriately for a public school setting.
Please note that the expectations we have also include attendance at extra-curricular activities. Incoming freshmen must dress appropriately when they attend our Freshman Fling activity at the beginning of the year. If not, they will be sent home. Students need to plan their wardrobes for our various after school activities, including dances, in order to adhere to our policy. Bare midriff formal gowns have been common in the last two years, but will no longer be allowed at NCHS. We do know that some gowns have spaghetti straps and these will be allowed at formal dances as long as tops are not considered too low cut.
The rules and regulations will be enforced from the first day of school. Our staff is prepared to send students to pre-determined locations to put on proper attire if they are not dressed appropriately. Believe me, students, the t-shirts we have available for you are not something you will want to be wearing on your first day of school, or on any day! If a student does not respond after we first address the problem by having him/her wear a t-shirt, parents will be contacted and further disciplinary measures will be taken.
Parents and students, we are very serious about making sure Naperville Central High School has the proper educational environment and that young people dress appropriately for that environment. We live in an age where many consider modesty to be an archaic relic of the past. At Naperville Central, we want to be sure that modesty and proper dress are not out of fashion, but are part of the total education we provide for our young people.
Please contact me if you have any questions regarding the enforcement of the dress policy at Naperville Central High School for the 2001-02 school year.
Sincerely,
Tom Paulsen, Principal