As an American citizen we are promised rights, but do these rights get stripped and taken when we enter school? We have a right as American citizens to express ourselves, any way we please, but once we enter a school system, we are forced to express “their ways.” We are not able to express our individuality. We are not able to do what we want with our clothes, our hair, our shoes, our flesh. They have taken our creativity. They have taken the only thing teens have control over. They have taken away what we see as beautiful and made us subscribe to what “They” think is beautiful. No it is not being seen as a crime to be stripped of who we are. It’s like being in prison, forced to be like the ones around you. Forced to follow these rules as if we are criminals or as if we are being punished. I’m referring to dress code. Why do a group of older people get to choice what is rightfully fashionable and decent? Fashion changes from generation to generation. So why do the older generation get to dictate the younger generation’s fashion? Why do they get to pick and choose what is right for us to wear? If I want to express my creativity by dying my hair pink and wear ripped jeans why can’t? Its part of who I am as a person. If it expresses me why can’t I do it? Who I’m I harming? Why make me cover up my tattoos? Would you make a painter cover up his paintings? My tattoos are my work of art; I want to show them off. Maybe I want to be a walking canvas. Why not let me dye my hair? It’s an expression of who I am. Why make me take out my piercings? It shows how unique I am. I’m an individual, but I can’t express that. I’m different, but I can’t show that. Why? Stacy Charter best,
“There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout:
This is me d*** it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me... or leave me. Accept me - or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision”