As of November 2021, Cherokee High School has reinstated a specific dress code geared toward shackling the freedom of clothing expression, predominantly for female students. The dress code bans students from putting in more than one earbud at a time, wearing hoods on their heads inside the school, and lastly, the most controversial ban is not being allowed to show bare midriffs.

The school has given a reason for every other clothing ban, except for bare midriffs. The supposed claim LRHSD administrators have made when asked for reasoning towards the midriff ban is that these types of clothing are unprofessional for a school setting, yet students of any gender walk around in pajama pants and baggy sweatshirts and that attire is deemed professional enough for a school setting by the same administrators. This reinstatement passive-aggressively stops everyone from wearing certain comfortable clothing, such as crop/tank tops and low rise pants. These clothes are most often worn by female students, which means the school is unnecessarily targeting the female students of Cherokee with a misogynistic dress code. Many students are outraged. One freshman said she won’t care and will wear what she wants, and also explained how the administrators “have no reason for the midriff ban except for the fact that it is ‘distracting.’”

When Cherokee officially reinstated the dress code on November 10, 2021, it did not seem to make any change to everyday life because many girls still wore clothing that violated the dress code without serious consequences. This means that more information must be gathered about the dress code and its relevance. For example, why the dress code is there and specifically targets females. Some students have created a petition on Change.org to end the Cherokee dress code. The petition can be signed with just an email and then a click of a button. The goal is 500 signatures. As of publication, the total count of signatures is up to 400+ and is still growing.