(Host) Students at Bennington’s Mount Anthony Union High have been put on notice that pajamas and slippers are not acceptable school attire.
The issue came up while administrators were tweaking the school’s dress code, published in the student handbook.
Mount Anthony Dean of students Dave Beriau says the tweaks are necessary because teenagers are particularly ingenious at getting around rules. A ban on spaghetti straps less than an inch wide also had to be updated
(Beriau) "They would have maybe a camisole over some kind of a shirt and then they’d also have bra straps and they’d say, ‘Well I’ve got three of these and that equals the inch.’ So we just simply said, we want to make it an inch and a half and it’s got to be one strap.’"
(Host) Beriau says only a handful of students have come to school in sleepware. He thinks the fad started with the plaid flannel lounge pants craze.
But he says slippers pose a safety hazard on the school’s shiny floors. And going to class in clothes meant for sleeping definitely sends the wrong message about a student’s attitude towards education.
Also banned in Bennington are clothes that advocate drug use or other bad behavior, gang-style bandanas, and clothes that are provocative or too tight.