The Government Accountability Office argues that school dress codes can make students “unsafe” and can further racism and various alphabetphobias. They are urging the Department of Education to do something about the inequities school uniform policies create.

Say what?

I was floored when I saw this USA Today story titled: Sexist, racist and classist: Why the feds are getting involved in school dress codes. If there is one thing that school dress codes are not, it is sexist, racist, and classist, since one of the points of having a dress code is to downplay economic disparities and kids’ efforts to stand out by wearing provocative or expensive clothing. Everybody is dressed uniformly, which is why the clothes are called “uniforms.”

Before I rip the GAO’s analysis I want to ask: why the hell is the GAO wasting its time on this issue? And why is it considered a federal issue at all? The GAO is supposed to focus on accountability, ensuring that our tax dollars are not wasted or stolen. School uniforms don’t seem to be under their remit. Their own description of their task is:

GAO provides Congress, the heads of executive agencies, and the public with timely, fact-based, non-partisan information that can be used to improve government and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

The short answer is that some idiot Congressman slipped a provision in a bill requiring them to do it, so they did. And since we live in a woke world the answer was preordained. Some activists, including the ACLU, oppose school uniforms because they are a good idea, so the report came up with some phony reasons why they are.

And the phony reason du jour is DEI. Literally anything can be oppressive under DEI.

I understand kids tend not to like school uniforms, but most of the reasons come down to hating the very reasons why they exist: they promote discipline and tend to obscure class differences between students. They literally exist to promote equity among students. Wealthier kids can’t show off too much, and poor kids look very similar to wealthier ones.

Good.

Not to mention avoiding the obvious hormone-driven showing off of skin and curves.

Very good.

Students, advocates, researchers and now a congressional watchdog agency are urging public schools to rethink their dress codes, which some argue are sexist, racist and classist, foster a culture of inequity and can interfere with some kids’ access to an education.

These issues were at the center of protests against local dress codes nationwide, including in Cobb County, Georgia; Longview, Washington; and Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, when schools returned to in-person learning following pandemic-related closures.

One high-profile case at a North Carolina charter school – where girls were once required to wear skirts, skorts, or dresses until a federal court intervened – could be heard by the U.S.Supreme Court.

Our society has gone absolutely insane. In what universe is this issue significant enough to engage the GAO and the U.S. Supreme Court? I know that local school boards have become utterly insane about a lot of issues, but unless they start mandating that boys and girls become fuzzies or something, perhaps this issue should remain at that level of government.

Nearly all – about 93% – of the nation’s schools have some kind of dress code policy, with about half of all schools enforcing a strict dress code, and about 1 in 5 schools requiring uniforms, the Government Accountability Office found in a report late last year. Most districts have some variation of bans against spaghetti strap shirts, short skirts, leggings, muscle shirts, sagging pants, or certain clothing colors or logos.

Although often created in the name of safety, some of these rules can actually jeopardize students’ well-being.

Well-being, of course, is a catch-all term for whatever internal feeling anyone has at any moment. I bet if you asked students, a decent chunk of them would tell you that the requirement they go to school jeopardizes their well-being.

The GAO report is among the first federal callouts for intervention, though groups including the American Civil Liberties Union have long argued that problems accompany school uniform policies.

GAO’s analysis shows school uniform policies make some students feel unsafe and by nature discriminate against students of certain cultures and religions. And discipline in response to violations takes learning time away from kids.

Given the fact that dress codes are pretty much the only thing that keeps some fraction of students from wearing lingerie to school, I would argue that dropping dress codes would quickly be a disaster. As for being unsafe if required to wear a uniform? That isn’t just a stretch, but pushing past the breaking point of any elastic definition of “safe.”

The closest they come to demonstrating a safety risk is that kids may get touched by an adult during a uniform inspection. That seems not a problem with uniforms per se, but with school policies regarding appropriate contact with students. Given how many examples of improper contact between adults and students exist, perhaps the schools should focus their efforts on dealing with that. Fire the predators who are the problem instead of focusing attention on a separate issue.

This is all BS. The federal government has no business getting involved in such issues, and the ACLU used to have better things to do before they went all woke.

It is as if the main goal of our Elite institutions is the complete dismantling of our society. If an enemy country were to design a psychological operation to undermine the West, what would be different than what our Elites are doing culturally and economically?

Woke is to culture as MAID is to life. Suicide.