With the 2024-2025 school year starting again, Cathedral Catholic High School students have seen the dress code becoming more strictly enforced. Although our dress code has been relatively the same for years, students are getting more dress code violations this year as teachers must check at the start of every class. 

Students may notice that morning announcements have included a reminder for students to remain standing as teachers check for the dress code. Cathedral Catholic teacher Mr. Hogan informed me that all teachers have been told to “help enforce the dress code by calling out the students that are not wearing what they are supposed to be wearing on a daily basis.” With this new rule in place, it makes it much more difficult for students to be out of the dress code as they know they won’t be able to get away with it. 

Last year, most students could get away with being out of uniform because “teachers would never really check”— as sophomore Kristine Bickler told me. She mentioned the difficulty of navigating the dress code this year because she got so used to “getting away with being out of uniform.” However, at the beginning of orientation, Principal Dr. Calkins informed students that a major part of being a Cathedral Catholic student is following the dress code because it is part of our rules and traditions as a school. He emphasized that how we do the small things like dress code matters and affects how we do the big things. 

Hogan also noted that he observed a decline in the amount of dress code violations given out so far this year. He explains that this “unified message really helped to drive home to students that they need to dress the way they are supposed to dress.” This year, Cathedral Catholic has highlighted the value of unum or unity, and a huge part of that theme is engaging with and respecting the rules of our school. By doing this, we can make sure that we are all in dress code to further improve our unity.