Sagging pants is a common problem at Hillcrest High school. You can’t walk down the hall without seeing a young man sagging, and, sometimes, you may even see a young lady sagging. Hillcrest has enforced strict dress code policies against sagging pants, but somehow some students find a way around the rules to still sag. Popular urban myth suggests that sagging pants originated in correctional facilities or with street gangs.  Therefore, no student at Hillcrest should sag as sagging is degrading because it creates associations with incarceration and other negative stereotypes.

Sagging pants are also bad for your health if it occurs over a long period of time. This is something no male attending Hillcrest High School would ever want to experience. When you sag your pants it can also mess up the alignment with your spine and hips. This can cause tons of problems for the students that sag when they are older. “These young men who are walking around with their pants sagging, you can rest assured there’s going to be an epidemic of hip replacements because of the way they have to alter their gait to swing those legs to keep those pants up, they are wearing the hip joints out,” Dr. Michael Gerdine told the St. Louis American.

Another reason students should not sag is because their peers and teachers don’t appreciate it. “I don’t enjoy seeing anyone’s underwear. When the entire behind is exposed I can’t stand it. I don’t come to work to see this. I don’t think there should be a law or people should be ticketed, but there are certain places you just don’t sag. For example: you wouldn’t walk into a courthouse or wedding sagging, and you shouldn’t walk into school sagging,” said Mrs. Jamilah Adebesin Mason-Fine Arts Teacher. She believes that students should not sag at school, and she doesn’t enjoy seeing students sag at school but she is not alone.

Wisdom Burton said she doesn’t enjoy coming to school and seeing people sag either, “I personally think people wear saggy pants to look cool. Nobody wants to see the type of underwear you wear every day. People should invest in a belt or new pants since they can’t stay on.”

Some schools have taken an extra step to ensure that none of their students sag. One school, Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, South Carolina, handed out belts to the students to keep them from sagging. At first the high school was writing every student up that they caught sagging, but the principal and deans were so sick of having to deal with the disciplinary issues that they came up with a new idea. They would lend out a belt to every student who was caught sagging and the student would give the belt back at the end of the day. This way the student wouldn’t miss their classes spending the day in detention. Also, the dean’s offices wouldn’t be flooded with so many students every day.

No one should sag because it is degrading, and everyone at Hillcrest is amazing, special, and unique in their own way. The only person that can stop a student from shining is themselves and those who sag have pants holding them back. Students don’t have to dress professionally everyday, but they don’t have to sag either since sagging can also damage the body’s natural alignment and the student body doesn’t like to see their peers sagging. Hillcrest High School is the start of many great journeys, and every journey has a first step.

The first step at Hillcrest High School is to pull your pants up.