Elle du Pont ‘25
This year, EA is pursuing a more stringent enforcement of the dress code and late policy in order to encourage students to comply with expectations and rules that became relaxed over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A violation of either policy results in a Wednesday detention. On the day of a student’s third offense in a given “bucket” (dress code or lateness), they are barred from participating in athletics and issued a Saturday detention. After a two week grace period at the beginning of the school year, on September 19, Upper School faculty members began to implement this new enforcement policy.
The Upper School administration did not decide to apply this stricter policy without cause, however. The decision to change enforcement was largely caused by the loose implementation of and resulting lack of adherence to dress code and late regulations during COVID. Tanuja Murray, Dean of the Class of 2024, explains, “The punishment is stricter, for sure, but we just didn’t have enough people not following the rules. That was the major difference–the amount of people–and whether it’s ties, whether it’s kilt lengths–the amount of people following the rules, and being late, was, I dare say, exponentially greater.”
Photo Courtesy of Gianna Trala ’23
Student reactions to these strict regulations are varied. Some saw the new procedures coming. Mihir Kohli ‘25 says, “I expected it because the teachers were getting fed up last year. But, they didn’t take action on it because they were going to wait until this year.”
Others did not anticipate this change. Ashley Kim ‘23 explains, “I was a little surprised. I knew they were thinking about changing the dress code last year, and that there was a lot of pushback, and so I guess I didn’t anticipate that they would actually employ changes, albeit different ones, after all the dissatisfaction that had been expressed.” Despite previous opposition to new policy, the administration says there has been remarkably little pushback. Max Kelly, Dean of the Class of 2025, notes, “I’m actually really confident; we have not received negative feedback that we’re pursuing this course of action.”
Exceptions to new regulations, especially in regard to the late policy, introduce topics of debate. Kailin Gao ‘25 expresses concern about how the tardiness of her bus impacts her arrival to school, saying, “My bus is always inconsistent on when it gets to school. The traffic on 252 is very bad, so I’m always late to homeroom. The service on 252 isn’t that great either, so I’ll always be panicking while emailing Mr. Kelly about my late arrival when the email won’t send.”
The Upper School administration, however, recognizes that certain situations warrant exemption from punishment. Michael Letts, Head of the Upper School, comments, “There’s always situations: it could be buses, or something just happens and that’s fine. I think all we are stressing to the parents and certainly to the kids, make sure you email your dean and Upper School attendance, and as long as it’s a legitimate excuse, of course you’re not going to be [punished].” Although special circumstances exist, traffic is not considered a valid excuse for lateness.
Student opinions about the consequences of dress code or late policy infractions are also varied. Some believe the repercussions are reasonable. Kohli states, “I think it’s fair, because it’s only a Wednesday. It’s not the worst thing in the world.”
Others believe the punishment is too extensive. London Pettibone ‘23, notes, “It’s never a bad thing to have rules, but I do think that the enforcement for these policies is kind of extreme. Our freshman year you wouldn’t get a detention for being late to class, you would get a demerit. I don’t think that more extreme measures are the way to get everyone back to normal.” Abby Whitman ‘26 shares Pettibone’s sentiments about the extremity of the repercussions, saying, “In Middle School they were more strict about what you could and couldn’t wear, but you wouldn’t get too penalized for it. A detention sounds like a bit much.”
In addition to being too strict, some students think that the new policy will also alter student perceptions of detention. Calvin Mackenzie ‘25 comments, “It’s [the new policies] destroying the stigma around a Wednesday. I feel like students are going to be less scared by detention in the future. Once they get this, it’s not going to change the amount of dress code or late policy infractions.”
Despite concerns about this stringent change in policy throughout the student body, many are inclined to believe that the measures will lighten as the year goes on. Hailey Deng ‘25 shares, “I feel like this is definitely a policy they are just enforcing at the start of the year to scare people into getting to school early and getting back into the groove.” Reinforcing the thought that the policy changes may be temporary, Murray says, “If we see that people are only late here and there, we’ll go back to our enforcement the normal way next semester. I don’t know for sure, but I would think that that would be definitely on the table.”