Imagine yourself as a senior in high school, a D1 committed athlete with a usual 4.0 GPA, coming home with your report card at the end of the semester. You worked tirelessly for the entire semester to maintain your GPA, and as your mother’s eyes scan the document, she sees your gym grade, a C-?
On the first day of school, Fremd’s administration issued a new uniform mandate in all gym periods stating that all students must wear green, black, or gray Fremd merchandise. According to the Fremd Administration, this rule was created to encourage a sense of belonging at Fremd and within our gym classes. At first, this new rule doesn’t seem so bad, but the repercussions of not following this rule can have harmful consequences on students, such as losing half of your points for that day of gym class.
The schools initial intentions of this rule was to regulate students into wearing clothes appropriate for gym class, but unintentionally they have isolated a significant number of students at Fremd.
The purpose of gym class is to encourage the students of our school to stay physically healthy and bring together groups of students with a common objective of athletics. Whether a student is wearing a red Nike shirt or a green Fremd shirt doesn’t affect their ability to participate actively in their gym class, so why should they be deducted for their points?
The overall concept of “Fremd I Belong” is that all Fremd students, no matter their race, academics, popularity, or choice of clothing, belong at this school. Although the school tries to promote this mindset, the new gym uniform rule challenges this concept, as our students are now being penalized for choosing athletic wear they feel comfortable in.
Student athlete and senior Trynati Fort shares her opinion of the new gym policy, and comments on this sense of comfort.
“The comfort of the student is what is most important when being active. Their clothing should be their decision,” Fort said.
Furthermore, this rule forces students to conform rather than help them find their place and sense of belonging in the school.
This controversy not only affects student creativity, but can also affect students in difficult financial circumstances. In previous years, students received a free Fremd shirt during the first week of school. This school year, however, gym classes did not give out a free Fremd shirt to students during the first week of school. Although many returning students still own the shirt they received in previous years, several new Fremd students are forced to purchase their own. This further neglects a significant number of students who may not be in the financial position to purchase a Fremd shirt.
Despite the fact that the school board had good intentions behind the implementation of the new gym uniform rule, the benefits of the rule pose a challenge against creativity, difficult financial situations, and overall neglects the opinions of Fremd students.
