You familiar with negotiation? For each side there's a bottom line, and there's an area of negotiability. Can't think of a better way to teach teens that than to negotiate with them about something that's important to them. Or we can raise powerless kids with no investment in the system and no concept of give and take, i.e., a nation of extremist whiners.Well, you have to look at the context of the entire matter. What is going to compromise the learning environment(that they are supposed to be in) the most her attire or all the attention drawn to the properness of it?
But what do I know? I never went to high school, and I don't have kids.
NB: By the way, the noun form of "proper" is "propriety." Not busting on you, just sayin'.