Others feel that the different nature of some sports call for different uniforms — \u201cat any school, basketball shorts would be longer [than shorts for other sports], so it makes sense that the AJA basketball shorts are longer,\u201d argued Aiden. However, said Rabbi Houben, \u201cI think the goal is to be consistent; we just aren\u2019t there yet.\u201d Whether it means creating clear rules that apply across the board or keeping the current rules while providing explanations on some potential inconsistencies, both AJA administrators and students agree that the goal of consistency and fairness is attainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A typical Saturday night for an AJA student probably consists of joining many members of the community in watching an AJA basketball game. In fact, many dedicated students try to make it to as many AJA games as they can, whether it be flag football, volleyball, or basketball. But in recent years, students have noticed some inconsistencies in how the sports dress code has been applied to different genders and different sports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlayers requested new shorts that were more suitable for volleyball and were told that in order to wear the new, slightly shorter shorts during games, a picture of the team wearing the shorts must be sent to and approved by an administrator.\u201d<\/p> <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n First of all, many, including senior Kiki Starr, noticed that for the boys basketball team, wearing a shirt under their otherwise sleeveless jerseys is not required, but that \u201cfor the girls, it\u2019s clear that they have to wear shirts under [their jerseys] and it\u2019s just not consistent.\u201d Sophomore basketball player Yael Mainzer agreed, saying, \u201cI think either none [should] do it, or both [should] do it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Head of High School Dr. Sim Pearl suggested that \u201cyou could [argue] that the girls don\u2019t have to worry about kippot on their heads, so maybe they have to worry a little bit more about what\u2019s going on with [their sleeves]… I think we\u2019re learning as a community that being fair does not necessarily mean being equal.\u201d Coach Rodney Zimmerman (Coach Z), AJA\u2019s Athletic Director, agreed with Dr. Pearl that \u201c[the rules] are fair, while they may not seem equal; whether it is kippot for boys during games or longer shorts for girls.\u201d Dr. Pearl said that, ultimately, for himself, \u201cIt\u2019s about tzniut\u201d <\/em>and giving clearer guidelines to prevent constant worrying about whether an outfit is appropriate or not. \u201cWe know people have different ways of living\u2026 and if people come modest[ly], we\u2019re just going to be respectful of one another,\u201d Dr. Pearl added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Coach Z said that \u201cthe goal of the AJA athletics program is to align itself with the values and principles of the school[\u2019s] mission statement,\u201d senior Micah Feit Mann suspects that this goal is not always met. He noted that he finds it \u201cweird that the school places such a standard on being [tzanua]<\/em> when most of the [sports] outfits are fairly incompatible to that — I\u2019m on the wrestling team, and I don\u2019t really get why I have to wear a collar [during the school day], but when I wear my wrestling uniform, half of my chest is exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the realms of shorts, many feel that female athletes are put in uncomfortable positions: \u201cCan we talk about how degrading it was to stand in a line and have our knees photographed to check the length of our shorts?\u201d remarked sophomore Aiden Smolensky who played on the volleyball team earlier this year. At the beginning of the volleyball season, players were given longer shorts that inhibited their agility as they covered the players\u2019 knee pads and made it harder to fall and slide properly. Players requested new shorts that were more suitable for volleyball and were told that in order to wear the new, slightly shorter shorts during games, a picture of the team wearing the shorts must be sent to and approved by an administrator. In response to this situation, Judaic Studies Instructional Team Leader Rabbi Allan Houben said \u201cI agree, that\u2019s probably not a dignifying experience\u2026 I think somebody in consultation with the school should make decisions about what the uniforms look like and then keep the rules the same across boards\u2026 if girls are wearing shorts for basketball, they should be the same as the shorts that they are wearing for volleyball, as they are wearing for soccer, as they are wearing for tennis.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Look Into How Consistently Sports Dress Code Rules Are Enforced <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":1928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","entry","rows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/uniforms3.jpeg?fit=338%2C237&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}