This past Monday should have been the first day of winter uniform, but like everything else in 2020 there’s been a change. Instead of requiring students to switch to the normal winter uniform, this semester they will have the option to either stay in summer uniform or switch to the winter one. And boys who choose to wear the winter uniform will not be required to wear a tie with the blue-collared shirt.

The motivation for this relaxation of uniform requirements stems entirely from the current Covid-19 pandemic. According to Dean of Students Ms. Rachel Braham, the administration just felt like giving students a little break.

“We just thought that it would be appropriate to kind of cut folks a little bit of a break,” Ms. Braham said, “and going to winter uniform, as well as wearing masks, we just felt like we would allow people to continue with something that’s comfortable.”

Ms. Braham expects students won’t have any negative reactions upon hearing of the new uniform change this semester. So far she has had good reactions from a number of parents, but hasn’t heard much from the students.

Junior Nic Moore is relieved to not have to wear a tie this semester.

“Ties are pretty annoying,” Moore said. “They are one of the major annoyances for the student population.”

 This decision to change the uniform requirements was a very recent one, according to Ms. Braham. The time to switch to winter uniforms arrived, so the administration made a decision.

“We’re talking about things in the moment. So it’s not like we planned in July that we would not do winter uniform,” she said. “[The] winter uniform is upon us, we had a conversation about the fact that we needed to get information out about winter uniform, and so that’s when we talked about it.”

Ms. Braham echoed this sentiment when she described the process the administration is following to tackle new issues in this strenuous time.

“We’re not hiding tricks up our sleeves or anything like that,” she said. “We’re trying to go day by day and make good decisions based on what’s happening at the time.”

As of now, the new uniform requirements will only apply to the first semester. If this were to change and the relaxed requirements to carry over into second semester, students will be informed at a later date.

“[This is] just for this semester, not necessarily the whole year,” Ms. Braham said. “We’ll re-visit the second semester when we’re on that time.”

As of now it is likely that ties, along with the rest of the normal winter uniform, will return in January.