Student voice, according to Ontario's Ministry of Education, is "a metaphor for student engagement and participation in issues that matter to learning." In other words, kids should have a say in their education and learning environment. Two weeks ago, the voices of Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School (P.E.T.H.S)'s student body were heard loud and clear, filling the hallways and ricocheting off the walls in an effort to protest an alleged change in their school dress code.

For years, the dress code at P.E.T.H.S has followed the same rules as the York Region District School Board's policy (as included in the school's student handbook that was sent in an email blast to all P.E.T.H.S families before the start of the 2018-2019 school year). On September 7th, during the "Safe Schools Assembly", a new picture was included in a slideshow in regards to "appropriate" school attire, and had hundreds of students questioning whether or not they would be asked to change as soon as they got back to class. The dress code in the picture was restrictive to say the least, prohibiting any top that exposed shoulders, pyjamas, and "sheer" leggings and yoga pants, among other things.

One student, Halle Daniel, noticed a quiet murmur permeating across the cafeteria and her fellow students shifting uncomfortably in their seats as they took in the picture projected in front of them, and decided to take action. Daniel, along with her classmate and friend Ameenah Khan, started a petition. "Now that we had a visual of just how oppressive the dress code was, I realized a lot more people would be interested in doing something about it." she said, upon being asked about her reasoning for starting a petition. Daniel and Khan began circling the school, amassing a little over 100 signatures before she was called into the main office and sent home for wearing a cropped top and refusing to change.

As soon as she got home, Daniel began to think about the next steps to really making a change in the matter, including making some phone calls. "I had been on the phone with the principal from Markham District High School because their dress code was changed after students expressed their feelings toward it, and now their learning environment feels safer and more accepting" she said. Another one of those next steps was to spread the word and reach as many students as possible. Daniel posted on Instagram about the protest she wanted to hold at Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School the following Monday and inserted a link in her bio to a survey she had created on "appropriate attire" at school that asked for students' opinions on their respective schools' dress codes. The response she received was huge. Soon, students from York Region District School Board, as well as Simcoe County School Board, Toronto District School Board, and York Catholic District School Board were responding to her surveys and Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School's student body was reposting her protest announcement on their social medias. "I think that it helped that [the dress code] was an issue that affected the entire school." Daniel said.

MONDAY, September 10 - Over half of the school was involved in the peaceful protest. Teenagers walked into school lowriding, wearing cropped tops, pajamas, and spaghetti straps. The P.E.T.H.S. administration had been alerted over the weekend about the protest by the Trudeau Student Activities Council (T.S.A.C.), and they had been anticipating the event. No student was dress coded the entire day. On the P.A. system that morning, the principal announced that there would be a "townhall" meeting for students, faculty, or anyone else wanting to discuss the dress code in the library after school on Wednesday. "I think this is fantastic. Our admin is always stressing how important student voice is to them and how much our thoughts and opinions matter, and a movement like this really does prove that they care about us." Theodora Girgis, a member of T.S.A.C., said about the scheduled meeting.

WEDNESDAY, September 12 - Students, teachers, and administrative representatives gathered inside the library, expressing their thoughts and feelings on the dress code and the photo shown at the assembly. After hearing several comments about the photo displayed at the assembly, P.E.T.H.S. administration admitted that they were wrong to have used the picture they inserted in the slideshow at the "safe schools" assembly, stating that "the picture was a mistake" and that it had no correlation to the actual P.E.T.H.S dress code. Instead, it was simply a photo taken off of Google to fill the "dress code" slide in the "Safe Schools Assembly" powerpoint. Even still, students were dissatisfied with the current dress code policy. "How does showing skin impede our education?" one student asked before voicing her own opinion, "I don't think the way you dress determines what happens to you or the choices you make, it's the society and culture we've created that has caused this way of thinking." Others pointed out that the dress code "limited females' outfit choices more than their [male counterparts]". After an hour and a half of discussing and listening to one another, students and administration came to the conclusion that the school dress code must be updated and a new one should be formed by not just faculty, but the student body as well.

Presently, select students and staff of Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School are working together to update the current dress code. There have been no further public updates on the matter, but one can only hope that by next year, when 2019-2020 P.E.T.H.S. handbook is released, a new and improved dress code policy will be in place, a reflection of a student voice that refused to be silenced.

Originally written September 21 2018

Last Updated January 3 2018