GUILDERLAND — One of the policies the Guilderland School Board will decide on at its next meeting, Oct. 17, involves allowing female athletes at the high school to wear sports bras without shirts over them during warm-weather practices.
Several board members shared their views on the dress-code policy proposal at their Oct. 3 meeting.

“I heard from a few students opposed with some concerns …,” said board member Blanca Gonzalez-Parker. “Body shaming may become a problem and a student who already has to cover up for religious reasons may feel further sort of socially isolated.”

Gonzalez-Parker said she had shared those concerns with the board’s policy committee and encouraged the students who raised them to write public comments.

“They obviously did not,” she said. “I respect that I heard them.”

Gonzalez-Parker’s daughter was one of two members on the high school track team who wrote last spring to the board, and also to the editor of The Altamont Enterprise, in favor of amending the policy to allow for sports bras.

Superintendent Marie Wiles said the administrative team had discussed the issue last spring “and they’ve since talked about this topic.”

The administrators, she said, “have a good amount of consensus” around three topics.

First is that athletes should practice in attire similar to what they would compete in. “So what is acceptable for games should be similar to what they use for practice,” said Wiles.

So, for example, she said, boys would not be able to run in a meet without a shirt so they shouldn’t practice without a shirt.

Second, the administrators are “worried about the impact of any change on the school day,” said Wiles.

Although the plan is to have the code apply to practice after school, she said, “It creeps into the school day. Honestly, I’ve learned it already has crept into the school day … Students are already making a choice to run wearing their sports bras even though we haven’t changed the policy so enforcement is going to be a real thing.”

Third, Wiles said, “Not every student will choose to wear a sports bra. They’d rather wear a top they may have, you know, or for cultural reasons need to. And so this may lead to students feeling like they are, you know, standing out for their, you know, cultural traditions or, you know, all those kinds of things.”

Board member Rebecca Butterfield responded, “I think the converse argument is we heard from students who are asking us to change our policy because they felt like their bodies were being objectified  by not being allowed to wear sports bras to practice in, which is something that they would wear if they were running, you know, off campus.

“And we want them to be comfortable as athletes — and comfortable in their own skin and not feel objectified. So I just present that as an opposing view.”

“I definitely see both sides,” said Blanca Gonzalez-Parker. “Even in my own home, there is tremendous conflict.”

Wiles noted that school dress code is a matter of board policy. So the board decides,” she said, “and our team will do whatever it is to enforce whatever policy that ultimately we have.”

Wiles went on, “For me, I weigh the positives for one group who feel one way are greater than … the negative impact for some other students. So, in other words, if there’s a group of students who will be more negatively affected by this, it will not be offset by the positives.”

Wiles said she would weigh this: “Is there more good from this or more not-so-good from this?”

Board Vice President Kelly Person asked, “Has anybody expressed concerns of this negative behavior or is it just we think that people might feel this way?”

Gonzalez-Parker said students had spoken to her, anonymously, about the issues she had raised at the start of the discussion.

“It’s a very difficult topic, you know, to come forward and talk about,” said Wiles. “And, you know, I respect both perspectives.”

Asked about the rules for boys, Wiles said, that, while boys are supposed to wear shirts during practice, “we have heard that there are times when they’re out on a long run and off come the shirts on a hot day … We don’t have coaches following them in a car.”

Wiles went on, “It’s always a certain amount of enforcement or trust …. We would expect you to follow the dress code. And now that is mixed, you know, and it does spill into the school day.

“I will just speak for our leadership team,” Wiles concluded, “who I feel are often in very uncomfortable positions to address violations of our school dress code right now. You know, it’s a very awkward thing to do, especially, you know, for our male administrators, very difficult.”