In Defense of Denim: The Case for Jeans in PE Class

Over the past two years, Gateway Regional High School students have wondered why they receive 80s for their daily participation grade, a C. The answer, surprisingly, is because they have worn jeans. Students have called this practice unfair for many reasons.

For one, it isn’t listed in the PE rubric or syllabus that students will receive this point deduction. Secondly, it seems that the practice of deducting 20 points off students’ daily grades is quite arbitrary, as students are still allowed to participate to the fullest extent while wearing jeans. 

In this article, we question this policy and the grading practices surrounding it and offer potential solutions where the school and the students could potentially meet in the middle.

Readers should note that whilst there isn’t a clear policy on this matter, we refer to the practice of point deductions as a policy throughout this article.

It also appears that the policy of assigning an 80 for wearing jeans is inconsistent amongst gym teachers, but it does seem to be the most common practice. 

Our Investigation

To start, we looked at the most obvious source of information, Gateway’s physical education rubric. Nowhere is it made clear in it that students will lose points for wearing jeans. Whilst it is mentioned in the PE syllabus that “Students will wear the required physical education attire,” it is not made clear in the rubric or under consequences that students will be graded on this.

Grading in PE is based on New Jersey’s state standards, which are outlined in the rubric; however, grades are assigned before students even get the chance to demonstrate their mastery of these standards.

After a request, Dr. Mount, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Gateway Regional High School, agreed to an interview, attended by Desmond McCue, grade 9, and Alex Noble, grade 10. When asked about the policy regarding jeans during gym class, she responded that it is left up to the individual teachers’ discretion. This isn’t mentioned within the PE rubric, linked on the Gateway Health and PE website, which only mentions specific standards in rubrics. 

Furthermore, Gateway’s own Grading and Testing Practices mentions that students are to be graded on “Assignments completed in class or as additional practice at home,” and “Long range performance assessments,” of which the attire we wear to PE class does not fall under.

This is synonymous with forgetting to bring a Chromebook to class. Teachers can still give the student the assignment on paper, and the student cannot lose points on things they are unable to participate in without their Chromebook, as the grading policy prohibits grading on participation.

We believe the same logic should be applied to PE class, with students unable to lose points for wearing jeans, because the attire we wear does not constitute a grade under Gateway’s policies. It is no different than forgetting a Chromebook because students in jeans who lose points are still able to participate, just like they can on paper in class without losing points.

When asked about specific evidence that makes jeans a safety hazard, Dr. Mount said that the burden of proof was on the students to prove that jeans are not dangerous, rather than on the school to prove that they are dangerous. This shows a lack of coherent information demonstrating that jeans are inherently dangerous.

Throughout the interview, Dr. Mount offered to change the policy to make jeans in gym class a full 0, which our interviewers perceived as an act of retaliation, which would go against the New Voices Act in New Jersey.

In the following interview with Mr. DiCicco, who supervises athletics and PE at Gateway Regional High School, attended by Desmond McCue, grade 9, Alex Noble, grade 10, and Laurel Barrett, grade 11, Mr. DiCicco answered questions about the PE grading policy and provided coherent explanation. 

When asked about why students can’t earn 100% for their daily gym grade when they are wearing jeans, even though they are still allowed to participate, Mr. DiCicco stated: 

Mr. DiCicco also agreed that for many activities in PE, such as walking, there are no real concerns over health/safety or range of motion when jeans are worn.

It was also brought up that because students have the freedom to choose which activities they would like, students could potentially choose activities that are completely appropriate for jeans. 

School’s Perspective

In the eyes of the school, policies of this matter are quite ubiquitous amongst other schools and gyms, and this may be the reason why this policy had been established in the first place.

When asked about the policy, one gym teacher recommended wearing sweatpants on top of jeans and said that this would allow students to earn a 100 for their daily grade in gym class. 

When this was brought to the attention of Mr. DiCicco, he remarked that such an “act of rebellion” was “disrespectful” to gym teachers. This is evidence of a major disconnect if this was the teacher’s recommendation.

Mr. DiCicco also stated that taking off points for wearing jeans is more of a “post-pandemic thing,” as students were not able to change during the pandemic as it would be more dangerous to have students change in a cramped locker room than to simply let students participate with whatever clothes they wanted. From this, we can make the point that if jeans weren’t dangerous during the pandemic, why are they now? 

Students’ Perspective 

To students, this policy seems ridiculous. It makes no sense whatsoever to allow students to participate in PE if jeans are, in fact, a health or safety issue. Students receive an 80 for the day, with no real explanation of what this 80 means, or why it is assigned, simply that it is “policy,” albeit unwritten. On this basis, we must ask why it is that such policies exist in the first place. What is the interest of the school in such policy? 

Secondly, we understand that there are freedom/range of motion concerns while wearing jeans. However, we must bring up the point that the goal of gym class is to get students active and moving, not to turn them into professional athletes.

It must also be noted that a study analyzing specific parameters (lumbar and hip movement during trunk flexion) found that there was no significant difference between “general jeans,” and wearing no pants (Yoo, 2012).  We also realize that policies prohibiting jeans aren’t all that uncommon. 

However, we would like to point out that in the interview with Mr. DiCicco, with regard to fashion changes, he stated:

We believe that this statement should be applied when these policies are created, reviewed, or updated. 

Laurel Barrett shared a story from earlier this year recounting the time she debated the cotton blend and elasticity of her mock-corduroy pants after 20 points were taken off her grade for them.

She shared, “My points were returned. My friend made fun of me for speaking up to recover my points, and I replied that it was worth it since those points were taken off a quiz grade. I wasn’t willing to lose the points before I even started the activity, especially if I wasn’t being assessed on a skill.”

Ironically, she ended up being on the leaderboard while wearing the fitness monitor and those pants that day.

Solution(s)

With the flaws of the policy pointed out, we would like to provide two solutions. 

Solution A is that students can make up the lost points by completing an alternate assignment. We think this should be in place because Gateway encourages retakes and this would be a fair way for students to make up points that they lost for wearing jeans.

We also believe this should be in place because students who already miss three days of gym class have to do an alternative assignment to make up lost points (per the PE syllabus), so it seems fair to offer an alternate assignment to recover lost points for jeans.

Solution B is to allow students to receive full credit on certain activities that jeans don’t impede on. The way PE works is that students choose activities that they will do over 2 weeks.

For example, one selection might consist of football, badminton, or walking the track. Badminton and walking the track are two examples of activities that students should be able to score a 100 on, as there is no reason why jeans would impair their ability to do either to the fullest extent. 

To conclude, Gateway’s current policy, which isn’t a written policy, doesn’t seem to have sound reason for existing. No one could fully explain why it’s in place or what purpose it serves. 

We think our solutions are best summed up by Mr. DiCicco: 

Special thanks to Mrs. Barrett, adviser to The Chomp, for her guidance on this article; Dr. Pierro, GRHS principal, for your support of us addressing this issue; and Laurel Barrett, Editor-in-Chief of The Chomp, for attending the interview with Mr. DiCicco.