The school dress record: a code abolished, a code kept, two uniforms

1970–2026 · from the schools' own record

Mishawaka High School: the December of the slacks. The fullest dress document in this section is a yearbook. The Miskodeed of 1971, Mishawaka High School's own annual, records under the headline "Dr. Koger abolish MHS dress code" that abolishing the code "was perhaps the most dramatic change that was brought about at Mishawaka High School this past year. In the wake of a student demonstration on December first in which over one hundred girls wore slacks to school, a committee was organized to study the problem and make a recommendation." The committee — chaired by the Rev. Phillip B. Smith, thirty members of students, faculty, and P.T.A., its student members named in the book — held two meetings "and voted unanimously to recommend that any dress code going beyond health and safety considerations be abolished." On January 20, Superintendent Kenneth Koger dropped all dress regulations, in a policy statement the yearbook quotes: "When dress or grooming demonstrates that it is disruptive of the educational process… It will not be permitted in school." The same volume captions its fashion pages in the new dispensation's voice — two students "share the securities of fashion and friendship. Individuality was evident in varied lengths of skirts, slacks and pantsuits." Mishawaka High's dress today is governed again by a code — the School City of Mishawaka's Parent-Student Handbook carries one, as the school's 2025–26 guide points to it — but the date and road of the code's return are not traced in the record reached.

Penn: a code, not a uniform. Penn High School, the Penn-Harris-Madison school on Mishawaka ground, keeps a dress code rather than a uniform, and its handbook states the philosophy in a fashion sentence of its own: "While fashion changes, the reason for being in school does not." The 2020–21 handbook's dress code names its period articles — spaghetti straps, exposed midriffs, pajamas and lounge pants, mini-skirts, apparel denoting gang association — and the school's standing code, as its own dress-code page carries it, prohibits what disrupts the educational process, endangers health or safety, or offends, reserving the judgment of appropriateness to the administration.

Marian: the uniform, specified. Marian High School, the city's Catholic high school, dresses by uniform, specified in the school's own dress-code document: an official Marian polo, or a white or blue oxford shirt with a standard tie or bow tie; khaki or navy pants or shorts; a black or brown belt; and solid leather dress shoes — "Crocs, boots, sandals, sneakers, flip-flops, slippers, moccasins and other nonuniform shoes are NOT PERMITTED," and no hoodies as part of the uniform. Mass days dress up from the uniform to "Sunday Best" — the school's February 27, 2026, roundtable restates the terms: no jeans on Mass days, heels no higher than two inches, skirts no shorter than two inches above the knee.

Mishawaka Catholic: the uniform from kindergarten. Mishawaka Catholic School, the city's Catholic grade school, prints its uniform policy in its 2025–26 Parent Student Handbook: the logo-bearing parts of the uniform are bought from the uniform company that serves the school; girls wear a plaid or khaki jumper, skirt, pants, or shorts with a polo. Its relief valve is named in the same print — NUT days, "No Uniform Today," with rules of their own, down to no leggings for grades six through eight on those days. The four schools' records together give the city's school dress whole: one code famously abolished and later restored, one code kept, and two uniforms worn daily — all of it from the schools' own paper, at the size that paper reaches.

Sources:

1. Miskodeed 1971, Mishawaka High School yearbook, Vol. 56 (archive.org, miskodeed1971mish) — "Dr. Koger abolish MHS dress code" and the administration chapter's "January, school dress code dropped," read first-hand; the fashion caption as printed.
2. School City of Mishawaka, Mi-Hi Guide 2025–2026 (the present handbook pointer); Penn High School Student Handbook 2020–21 and the school's standing dress-code page (penn.phmschools.org).
3. Marian High School dress-code document (mariancatholichs.org) and the school's weekly roundtable, February 27, 2026 (Mass-day terms); Mishawaka Catholic School Parent Student Handbook 2025–26 (the uniform policy and NUT days).