A big change has been made to all campuses within the Clovis Unified School District. Every student is now allowed to wear shorts year-round.
A group of high schoolers proposed the idea to the school board. Members thought it was a good idea and voted unanimously to change the dress code, which ended the seasonal restriction on wearing shorts.
"Everyone is really excited about it and I've seen people wearing shorts all week since it's been in effect," said Megan Turner.
Clovis High senior, Megan Turner, is part of Inter School Council, a group of 30 high school students who work to bring unity within the district. Their resume now includes convincing a school board to alter the dress code.
"I was pretty excited after it got approved because we worked hard to get it worded correctly," said Turner.
For the last 20 years, students were not allowed to wear shorts between November and April. Now all 40,000 students, K through 12, can sport them year round.
"This is a big change," said Kelly Avants.
Kelly Avants of Clovis Unified says in recent years the topic of wearing shorts in the winter seemed to dominate surveys filled out by parents and students. Given the Central Valley's warmer weather, the board decided to give it strong consideration.
"The board just felt like now was the time to say either it's ok or it's not ok and parents can work with their students to determine when it's an appropriate day to wear shorts and when isn't," said Avants.
8th grader, Fernando Morales, says the new rule creates a better learning environment.
"It's really uncomfortable to wear sweats or pants and you get sweaty, so it's good to wear shorts and it's comfortable," said Fernando Morales.
Miguel Morales believes the inter school council's willingness to fight sends a good message to other kids.
"If they want something and it makes sense they can do something about it. They have power to talk about it and do it through the right means," said Miguel Morales, a parent.
The rule regarding styles of shorts has not changed. They must still be an appropriate length and have to be made out of an appropriate material.