COBB COUNTY, Ga. — As students and teachers prepare to head back to school, some are celebrating a new dress code.
A group of students from East Cobb Middle School encouraged the principal to add leggings to the list of approved clothing.
Channel 2′s Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell visited the school to learn how it happened.
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The idea began earlier this year. A group of students came up with a plan that impressed the principal so much, she decided to make a permanent change.
“We can wear leggings now if we want to, but we have to wear an oversized shirt that covers our bottoms,” student Eduarda Sitzmann said.
It is a major change that began during Women’s History Month in March.
“We’re kind of jokingly said, ‘What if we had a leggings day?’ And then we kind of brought it to life,” student Anna Grace Love said.
The East Cobb Middle School Beta Club wanted students to wear leggings for one day without breaking the dress code, so they created a fundraiser to do just that.
“They were very clever when they presented this leggings day,” principal Leetonia Young said.
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Young said she was most impressed by the slideshow the Beta Club put together explaining why they wanted leggings day and who it would benefit.
In the slideshow, students said they wanted to wear leggings with long tops while raising money for the Atlanta Women’s Foundation. In the students’ words: “Long tops to cover our buttocks and make sure that it’s appropriate for school.”
“For $3 you can wear leggings for the day,” Love explained in the presentation.
So far, they have raised a little over $800.
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They inspired Young to make a bigger change.
“It was very positive and it was successful. Subsequently we thought let’s go a head and move with the times and let’s make a change in our dress code,” Young said. “Leggings weren’t in the dress code before because they had a tendency of being distracting.”
Students must wear long tops over leggings to comply with the code. The fabric cannot be too thin or see through, and they should be on the thicker side.
“We advocated for ourselves and we tried to make a small difference and that really went a long way for us,” Love said.
Young told Newell she also made another change to the dress code for the upcoming school year. Athletic slides, such as Crocs, are also allowed.
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