You all have heard the story by now. A kid wears his flashy new hat to campus, eager to impress his friends, teachers, and Quartz Hill High School’s fashion police. But, before he sets foot on campus, his hat is taken away by the notorious security guards — just because it does not have the glorified QHHS emblem on the crown of the hat. But is that really fair to the student, or to any of the students of Quartz Hill?

Absolutely not.

By prohibiting students from wearing the headgear of their choice, the campus (and district) administration is infringing upon our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For many students across campus, the right to wear a hat is a symbol of liberty, a symbol of freedom. Without the ability to wear the headgear of our choice, the students of Quartz Hill are left without that pivotal symbol and are left in an ordeal of a deep, dark depression.

To make matters worse, this rule arguably violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as well. This amendment that no law shall be made “abridging the freedom of speech” is clearly being violated, as clothing is a form of expression and speech, only through a different medium.

The concerns of the “hat ban” are not only shared by my fellow hat enthusiasts; they are shared by almost every student across campus. For example, Nelson Rivera, a Quartz Hill senior with plans to attend Harvard Law School in the future, agrees that the ban and its purpose are foolish, saying, “This ban is worse than Trump’s travel ban. I mean, it violates our rights enumerated in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. It makes bedhead a pain to deal with. What else can be worse?”

Additionally, by getting rid of the hat ban, the students of Quartz Hill would feel both overjoyed and empowered. Not only would each and every student be ecstatic to wear all sorts of different headgear from baseball caps to sombreros, but every student would also feel accomplished with the change they had enacted.

Although there is still much to achieve before an era of all-encompassing hat freedom is reached, the possibility always exists. By binding together, asserting our position, and fighting for what they believe in, the students of Quartz Hill can truly “be the change [they] want to see in the world.”