Effective this year, hats and hoodies may be worn at school. This is a revision to the dress code that previously banned these items.

”We have been talking about our dress code policy for a long time, like years long time. Little by little, we have been making changes,” Niles West dean Dr. Amy Tucker said. “As far as the hats and hoods are concerned, it’s an antiquated rule. It didn’t make sense anymore. Instead of going back to the way it was, let’s stick to the changes we started making after we left in March of 2020. If they’re working, let’s keep rolling with that.” 

Many students over the years have asked for the dress code policy to be changed. Three years ago, a group of students from Niles North successfully got the board to amend the dress code policy to reconsider spaghetti straps. 

According to senior Jack Plusker, “It’s about time. We should have been able to wear them a long time ago.”

As increased numbers of students wear hats, beanies, and hoodies, the change is not popular with some in the school community. 

“I was raised with the belief that wearing hats and hoodies inside the building is disrespectful, and it’s nothing that should be done,” accounting teacher Eric Lueder said. “With masks and hats, all I can see are eyeballs, and now with hoodies, students are wearing headphones and listening to music while in class.”

Originally, hats and hoods were prohibited for security reasons. Students wearing hats and hoods were reportedly difficult to identify on camera.  The student handbook still identifies “hats” as prohibited items if they “contain the insignia of a street gang or [are] otherwise commonly associated with a street gang.”

According to English Instructor Dena Lichterman, hats are not a primary concern. 

“I’m honestly more concerned about students not wearing their face masks than wearing a hat in class. We are only on day five, and I’m already seeing students constantly in the hallways with their face masks below their chins. I believe that’s more of a safety concern than whether someone has a hood over their head.”