Plaid pants and slippers roam the halls of Jefferson on a typical school day. Amid the hustle of assessments and schoolwork, pajamas have become a ubiquitous element of our school’s culture, offering a sense of comfort, warmth, and familiarity into our academic settings.
Wearing pajamas to school has become a common trend among Jefferson students, and it makes sense why. After pulling an all-nighter or studying for a long test, students can experience more comfort while taking notes in a lecture, and overall have a better mood while at school.
However, recently proposed changes to the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook (SR&R) included a drafted dress code, which considered banning all forms of pajamas “unless worn during Spirit Week or pajama day.” While this proposal has been removed, it is important to consider regulations surrounding the presence of pajamas at school.
Pajamas at school aren’t relevant for the school board to address when there are more impactful issues affecting students in the county. For instance, the school board agenda, which initially included the discussion pajamas, also included issues such as harassment and bullying. In the face of these topics, the regulation of pajamas isn’t what actually matters to students. As a whole, the dress code has a minimal impact on school learning environment, and rather detracts from the severity of topics such that affect students on a daily basis.
In addition, if dress codes were to be placed restricting pajamas, the exact rules surrounding it would be unclear. In order for a rule to determine if pajamas can be worn or not, the question “what are pajamas?” would first have to be answered and strictly outlined. Would sweatpants be considered pajamas if a student had worn them to sleep the night before? The biggest fault that lies with restricting pajamas would be that it would be vague and too subjective of a rule. Due to the confusion over what would constitute as pajamas, dress code policy would also be hard to enforce.
From the May 2023 Issue of tjTODAY