Even though the intention was to encourage appropriate dress code, when it was announced that we would no longer have actual Jeans Days because of fellow students who did not comply to the Bishop Noll Jeans Day regulations, the rule will end up hurting classes or clubs in the long run.  I guess some students just forgot that this was a probationary Jeans Day, and that if they didn’t follow the rules, we would get the privilege taken away.  I agree that this was idiotic on the students’ part, but I question how the administration thought that it was possible for an entire school to go without several out-of-uniform incidents on a Jeans Day.  There are numerous things about the new Jeans Day regulations -which I am just going to refer to from now on as Fancy Warrior Wear Days- that do not make sense and prove that it will be a complete failure.
First of all, the biggest issue I have with this new rule is two words: Collective Punishment.  For those of you who are not familiar with this term, it means the punishment of all for the actions of one or a few.  If you type that into a search engine, you’ll likely get many essays and articles about the ineffectiveness of collective punishment.  One does not need to read an essay, though, to see the flaws in this system.  Firstly, it is simply not fair.  There are some of us who have never once gotten in trouble for any uniform related mishap- or have never gotten in trouble in general.  So why make us responsible for the actions of others?  It is not our fault our peers don’t know how to follow little rules.  It is also not our responsibility to make sure that they do follow those rules.  Saying that we are responsible for each other’s actions is suggesting that we should threaten, or maybe force others to comply.  This simply does not work, and does not teach us any lessons or morals.  If anything, it makes us much more annoyed with each other and the school in general.
My suggested alternative to the collective punishment theory that the administration is using is pretty basic: make the punishments for those who do not conform to the Jeans Day rules more strict.  Prohibit them from dressing down ever again, or at least for a few months.  Fine them $20 dollars and a two-hour detention.  Give them the highest punishment below suspension.  Anything but making the rest of us responsible for a few students who purposely or forgetfully made the wrong decisions to dress out of code on the last Jeans Day.
Another obvious flaw in the Fancy Warrior Wear Day rules is in the name; it’s a Warrior Wear Day that we get to pay $2 for…what?  It does not make any sense.  Why would we pay for a free dress down day that we have been given for most of our high school careers?  Sure, there are some athletes who own a billion different Warrior Wear items and will have no problem with the Fancy Warrior Wear Days.  And there are those whose closets consist solely of basketball shorts or jeans and Warrior Wear shirts.  But where does that leave us unathletic, stylish people, who own about two articles of Warrior Wear and actually take pride in the way we dress?  I hope that I speak for other students when I say that I, for one, am most definitely not going to wear the same two shirts and pair of jeans for six more Fancy Warrior Wear Days plus actual Plain Warrior Wear Days that we don’t have to pay for.
This brings me to my final point; loss of revenue.  The profit of each Jeans Day goes to a specific class fund.  This fund partially finances Prom, Homecoming, Snowball, and various other things that contribute to the high school experience.  Even if some kids do dress down for the Fancy Warrior Wear Days, the turnout will be drastically lower than old Jeans Days.  The loss in money will affect a lot of things that we, as students, look forward to.  The drop in profit that will affect so much is the biggest punishment that we as a whole have to bear the brunt of because of the group of kids that decided not to follow the rules.
All in all, this whole Fancy Warrior Wear Day is incredibly unfair, and is a very outdated form of punishment.  I hope that my arguments can be seen as logical facts that disprove the idea that the new regulations will be a success.  Not to sound too much like a grandparent, but obviously life isn’t fair.  That does not mean, though, that if there is a much more fair solution to an issue we should purposely avoid it, especially if that alternative is simply more sensical.