By Taylor Conley

   While some recent school board meetings across the nation consist of heated discussions between militant parents about masks, vaccines and inclusive curriculums, Tempe Prep students are also pushing for modifications to the school’s dress code. 

   As a result of their efforts, board members voted on Nov. 17 to remove the following three words from the men’s dress code: if combed downward. 

   Originally, the full sentence on page 33 of the TPA Family Handbook read, “The hair will not fall over the ears or eyebrows or touch the collar in a seated position if combed downward.” So now, male-presenting students can have an inch more freedom but cannot have their hair below ears, eyebrows and collars (while staying within the margins of the rest of the school hair code). The work of one student, senior Michael Louton, helped this topic surface for discussion. 

   In August, Michael gathered hundreds of signatures from TPA faculty members and students in support of the dress code change. As someone who has spent most of his adolescent life at TPA, Michael felt unnecessarily restricted in his hair length, having enjoyed growing it longer during the early months of the pandemic. Accordingly, Michael created a petition and spent a few weeks collecting signatures from peers. Michael said, “it was campaigning…like an intro to politics.” 

   However, collecting signatures was the easiest part of the process. At a crowded board meeting on Aug. 17, Michael sat in front of the board to present his case for a boys’ dress code alteration. He had a written statement and numerous signatures to support him. Afterward, the board’s Vice President and TPA parent, Augustus Shaw, agreed and suggested that a complete rewrite be done, with a special foundation on the 2021 Diversity and Inclusion Standards. He pointed out that the current dress code is biased and discriminatory against students of color. This could be seen in the rules that any student’s hair deemed having a “ragged, unkempt, or extreme appearance” is enough for detention. 

   In a later interview, Michael said current dress code restrictions “might not be the best environment for LGBTQ+ people, but I don’t think that’s what they’re looking for in this school.” He also mentioned the possibility of lawsuits being brought up over discriminatory policies, which has happened at other schools in the U.S. After Mr. Shaw’s statement at the August meeting, multiple students supported the change, saying that hair is not a distraction. 

   A few months later, at the board meeting on Nov. 17, the dress code change was finally made. Board member Dr. Ben Hurlbut made the motion to remove the three words from the handbook. He said, “I move to once and for all excise those draconian words from the TPA Men’s Hair Policy.” Board member Chad Sampson said over Zoom that this vote would “give the students who wanted this hard-fought legal battle an end to the repression of their hairstyles.” The motion carried. 

   Michael collected approximately 360 student signatures and seven from faculty members, revealing the astonishing amount of support for his petition. He said, “Everybody really supported it, it was just [that] somebody had to step up and do the work to get it to change.” Michael also wanted to thank Mr. Shaw for his supportive guidance. 

   Among other students, junior Connor Clark, who had been vocal about the dress code change at board meetings, said in a virtual interview: “I think there is going to be more changes coming, as expressed by the board, but this change is a good start in the right direction.” He emphasized the importance of changing the dress codes for beards and facial hair with the acceptable condition of good grooming. 

   Above all, the recent dress code changes, however minimal, show that change is indeed possible within the TPA community. Micheal said, “This is just a small step on the way to bigger things.”