The athletic code of conduct’s purpose is to establish the district rules and expectations students will follow during athletic events and that coaches will enforce while participating.
The code of conduct should be properly edited and revised to establish clearer terms to provide fair treatment to all athletes, specifically allowing equal representation for all genders, regardless of hair length or tattoos.
While the code of conduct statements are supposed to include the entire athletic student body, it appears some rules are only applied to one gender. In the code of conduct’s expectations page, there is clear writing of the following: “Our athletes are representing our school district and the community; therefore, good grooming standards will be met. Hair will be neat, clean and of reasonable length, off the collar.” Notice how it specifically states “Our athletes,” meaning collectively the entire athletic student body, yet coaches don’t apply this rule to the female athletes, only to males. Adding to that point, the code of conduct does not state that an athlete can’t have a tattoo. However, there was an incident where a female athlete was removed from her team for having a tattoo during an event. These incidents both represent an issue where the code of conduct has vague wording, leading to discrepancies down the line. If there were a change that specified that hair can be put up (either in a ponytail or bun) instead of completely keeping it short length, then there would be no issue for any athlete to have long hair. As for the tattoos, state whether or not it’s allowed to have a tattoo, that way everyone has just treatment in definite writing.
Many officials would say that these physical appearance rules are meant to keep the students at a standard to represent the school during competitions. While their point isn’t entirely invalid, there still lie issues. It’s completely understandable to want students to represent their schools proudly, but they also need to represent themselves in the process. If the rules restrict student’s freedom, then they have to choose between their appearance or their athletic event. There’s a bigger issue at hand if a student has to choose whether to represent their school or themselves. The role of the coach is to inspire the athletes, but they can’t achieve this goal if the expectations limit free will.
The solution to these fallacies is to simply be more direct and clear within the wording of the code of conduct and allow the athletic body to have more freedom in their own appearance. Simply include the entire athletic student body to have the same treatment, so there’s no bias to either side and put concise wording that states the ruling on appearance related issues (tattoos, hair length, etc.)
