Junior Gabriel Fischer stretches at the beginning of Men’s Team Sports with the rest of his classmates. Students are no longer required to change clothes before physical education courses, as long as they are already wearing appropriate athletic attire. 
[heading size=”18″]Policy change allows students to choose whether to change clothing when attending physical education classes[/heading] [dropcap style=”flat” size=”2″]T[/dropcap]he physical education department kicked off the new semester with a policy change, one that no longer requires students to change into athletic clothing for physical education classes. Students still have to wear proper athletic attire — jeans and slacks are not permitted — but students can show up to school and attend physical education class in the same set of athletic clothes.
Some courses, such as strength training or team sports, call for more stringent requirements, including limits on jewelry.
“For fitness walking, jewelry’s not a big deal because you’re just walking,” physical education instructor Jeff Bazat said. “When you’re playing games where there might be contact and something could get snagged on something, we say no jewelry because we don’t want someone getting hurt.”
[quote cite=”Michael Pennella”]It’s a reasonable expectation for students to know that they’re in charge of their own schedule and their own classes, so it should be expected of them to show up at PE wearing the proper clothes.[/quote] This change didn’t come as a surprise. Starting last semester, the CPS education board discussed revisions in the dress code policy and alerted instructors to expect a change. At the beginning of this semester’s, instructors received an email confirming the new policy.
“When we met with all of our classes at the beginning of the semester, we let them know of the change and the expectations,” Bazat said. “[Dressing out is now] more of an option than demand.”
During senior Michael Pennella’s time in summer school physical education at RBHS his freshman year, he attended school dressed in his athletic attire. With only two courses over the school day and physical education as the afternoon course, he opted to skip the outfit change and head straight to school in clothing appropriate for exercise.
“It’s a reasonable expectation for students to know that they’re in charge of their own schedule and their own classes, so it should be expected of them to show up at PE wearing the proper clothes,” Pennella said. “It’s also part of freedom with responsibility because you give students a lot of freedom and you expect them to be able to use that freedom in a responsible manner.”
Along with exercising freedom with responsibility — one of the main principles incorporated into RBHS curriculum — junior Rucsanda Juncu’s sees this policy as a change that allows for more individual expression and increases personal comfort.
“With any kind of liberty, you’re taking a risk,” junior Rucsanda Juncu said. “I actually think that this might be beneficial considering you can wear athletic clothes that are more tailored to your body.”
Students are still given time to dress out if they desire, resulting in very minimal change in the structure of class time for physical education courses. As long as students are prepared for class, they are not required to change.
“We’re still issuing kids locks if they would like a lock, if they don’t want a lock, they don’t have to have one. They still have a place to store extra clothes if they want to,” Bazat said. “I don’t see a whole lot of change in it, but it gives an option to a kids who don’t feel comfortable changing in front of other people.”
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