A simple rule- easy to follow, yet thought to be arbitrary by many. The no-hats rule is implemented in Fairfax County for safety precautions, but it has been criticized as a somewhat useless rule by many students.

“Personally, I am against the no-hats rule,” senior Connor Cragg said. “[I know] it is a security thing, but I do not get it.”

Although many like Cragg write off this rule as ineffective, the administration believes that the rule should be in place to protect students.

“Students with hats or with a hood are hard to identify,” Principal Teresa Johnson said. “We are doing the best we can to ensure that every student is safe in the building, and by making sure that students do not have a hat or hood on, they can be identified.”

Identifying students is incredibly important as a safety measure in case of any emergency or conflict within the school. With our nation’s history of school violence, identifying possible suspects quickly is crucial to the safety of everyone in the building.

“We want to make sure everybody that is here belongs here,” Security Specialist Dick Cline said. “If we do have an issue, it is so much easier to identify whether they are a victim or a person of interest without the hat.”

Despite the reasoning behind the rule, many still view the rule with some skepticism. For one, hats do not necessarily cover faces, but merely cast a shadow over those who wear them.  

Even though students understand that this rule is in place for a reason,some are still opposed to it.

“It would just be so much easier to wake up in the morning and put a hat on for school, because I am too lazy to do my hair,” Cragg said.

It is well known among the school that the no-hats rule is not well liked, and many do not abide by it, although they are told by administrators to take their hats and hoods off.

“It is usually the same offenders over and over, and we usually point and they take it off. It is usually not a big deal,” Cline said. “Most of the people who wear them are respectful. They are not nasty about it; they just need reminding-some of them more than others.”

Although the no-hats rule may seem to be pointless, like many other rules, it is there for a reason.