OPINION

Two Fort Lupton High School seniors advocate for dress code changes

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Earlier this fall, Fort Lupton High School senior Anisty Hernandez was sent to the principal’s offi ce for wearing a shirt that showed about an inch of her midriff. According to her friend Victoria Ingino, Hernandez returned to class in tears.

The next day, the students went to the principal’s offi ce again – this time, with a mission to change the dress code.

“We were very full of motivation because, for Anisty, this has been happening her whole time at high school. And when somebody gets dress-coded, it can discourage them,” Ingino said. “We really felt like it was important to do something about it.”

For about six weeks, Hernandez and Ingino have been advocating for two changes in their dress code. They are asking for the policy to allow students to wear hats and expose three inches of midriff.

Among other rules, the current district-wide dress code policy bans hats worn inside the building. In addition, students may not expose “traditionally private parts of the body including… the stomach.”

After garnering student and staff support, the students presented their requests to the RE-8 Board of Education, which will be voting on the proposed changes at its Oct. 27 meeting.

Following the process

When Hernandez and Ingino had their idea, they brought it to FLHS Principal Doug Gordon.

“The biggest part is that we wanted to go about this the right way,” Ingino said. “We didn’t want to just go outside and start rioting... So we took it to Mr. Gordon fi rst.”

When the administration team realized the dress code rules were part of a district-wide policy and not within their own power to change, they laid out the steps for the girls to bring their request to the board.

First, Hernandez and Ingino circulated a petition. In two days, they gathered 248 student signatures and 21 staff signatures, according to the students. Gordon said all three members of administration signed the petition.

“Enforcing these two small parts of the dress code, which we don’t feel takes away from the learning environment or the safety in the building, it requires a lot of energy on our part,” Gordon said. “Sometimes it strains the relationships that we’re trying to build with these students.”

After the petition, Hernandez and Ingino crafted a presentation to make their case to the board of education.

“We couldn’t be more proud of the way… Victoria and Anisty carried this out, following the process and all that,” Gordon said. “Teenagers sometimes don’t want to go through a six-week process to get an answer for something.”

Board member Michelle Bettger was also pleased with the way the students asked for changes.

“They did a nice presentation, they did the petition, they followed the procedures and so I was impressed by that,” she said.

Reasons for change

According to the students’ presentation, being “dress-coded” creates harmful effects on students’ selfesteem, body confi dence and mental health.

“Students want to be comfortable with themselves, style is a way of expression and also boosts confi dence,” Hernandez said in the presentation. “People don’t want to be targeted or alienated on a daily basis.”

Their presentation cited language from dress codes at nearby Weld Central High School and Brighton High School to defend their argument, as neither policy mentions midriffs and one doesn’t prohibit hats.

According to Ingino, only hats that keep identity clearly in view, such as baseball caps and beanies, are part of their request. The students would leave the prohibition of hoods for safety reasons.

Regarding the midriff request, the students said it’s often diffi cult to fi nd shirts that comply with the dress code in junior sections at stores nowadays.

“A lot of women have to actually shop at the men’s section to fi nd school-appropriate clothing,” Ingino said.

Discussion

In an interview with Colorado Community Media, board member Matthew Bovee said “torso exposure” may not be the most appropriate thing for school. He added that the same goes for business.

“I’m not in favor of relaxing the dress code to show more skin,” he said at an Oct. 12 study session.

He also said he was concerned about the embarrassing situation that could arise from a teacher or administrator measuring midriff exposure length.

“I don’t really like the idea of someone taking a ruler to a young lady’s outfi t,” he said in an interview with CCM.

But according to Hernandez, getting dress-coded can be uncomfortable as it is.

“Personally, I was told my shirt was distracting from a male teacher and it made me very uncomfortable,” she said.

During the Oct. 12 RE-8 study session, President Susan Browne said she would be okay with allowing hats but was not in favor of allowing midriff.

Bettger and Bovee said the vote should be “all or nothing” because it would be unfair to Hernandez and Ingino to only grant the hat request.

Ingino said she’s happy the board recognized how hard and respectfully she and Hernandez have worked for this cause, and she hopes they take a moment to see the issue from their eyes.

“I know that they’re not in our situation anymore, but they were. They were in high school, so… I really want them to try and see what we’re seeing,” she said.

The Oct, 27 board meeting will be open to the public in-person and via Zoom. Schedules and agendas for Weld RE-8 meetings can be found at https://go.boarddocs. com/co/weld8/Board.nsf/ Private?open&login#.

Weld County government secures a new URL to frustrate hackers

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A subtle change in Weld County’s offi icial URL address -- swapping

“weldgov.com” for “weld.gov” -- should help securre the website information from hackers with CRAFTintentions to destroy or damage computer network systems, county offi cials said. FAIR“The public can still type in weldgov.com as it will redirect the user to our more secure weld.gov site,” said Weld County’s Chief Information Offi cer Ryan Rose. “ It seems like a minor change to some, but it’s a change that makes our website more secure and provides visitors to our site the assurance that they are on a genuine government website.”

Rose said there is no adjustment for the public communicating with county employees over email on the user end. Its change to a dot-gov website and email is for security reasons. The Weld County government will continue to have the weldgov.com website, which will go directly to the weld.gov site. The email addresses remain usable.

“Moving to the dot.gov site added security and improved searchability on its offi cial Weld County Website. Anyone could purchase dot-com domains, and dot-gov domains are only purchased by certifi ed government agencies requiring secure HTTPS connection as well as security improvements,” Rose said.

Rose said that Weld County Government did not initially use dot-gov because government domains are expensive to purchase and hard to access. In 2021 changes were implemented on how dot gov domains were accessed, so government domains are now accessible under the Federal Department of Homeland Security and eliminated fees.

“Over the years, as technology has improved and increased in our daily use, people looking to commit online fraud have become more sophisticated. Government at all levels understand the importance of keeping their systems and information safe, and this is just one more way Weld County is doing just that,” Rose said.

Crafts & Baked Goods

CRAFT FAIRSaturday, November 5 8 am - Crafts & Baked Goods4 pm

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8 AM - 3 PM

Family Dollar approval waits on alcohol server training

BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Acting as the city’s liquor licensing authority Oct. 18, Fort Lupton City Council delayed a decision on an off-premise liquor license request from a Family Dollar business on South Denver Avenue.

The decision could come as soon as Tuesday, Nov. 1, council’s next regular business meeting. If approved, the license would be for beer sales and not wine sales.

The reason for the delay was TIPS training, a requirement for alcohol servers and sellers. Mayor Zo Stieber-Hubbard asked if such training was in place. The applicant’s representative, Tim Jackson, just took over as the company’s representative for this area and was not aware of the required training.

“I can’t speak to formal training,” he said by phone from Georgia. “I’m new to the process, but I’m aware of the training so people know what to do.”

“When employees come to work, will they be trained in alcohol sales?” asked City Attorney Andy Ausmus.

“I can’t speak to that issue,” Jackson said. “It’s not my area. I do know there is training.”

“Is there someone in the corporation who is in charge of training?” Ausmus asked.

“I know there is someone who makes sure things are done the way they should be, that we are good corporate citizens,” Jackson said. “I can’t say what his name is. But I know they train and apply the proper statutes.”

Council agreed to the delay unanimously, pending more information on available training for employees.

Ninety-seven percent of those surveyed were in favor of a liquor license, according to a state-required survey by Liquor Licensing Professionals and paid for by Family Dollar. Of those who supported the application, 29 responses came from businesses and 59 were residents. The fi rm knocked on 273 doors. Almost one-third declined to sign the petition, and 18 people were younger than the age of 21.

The application met the 500-foot distance requirements from schools and from other retail liquor establishments, according to City Clerk Mari Pena.

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