Pardon my do-rag: schools to teens: books, not bling bling - News Debate - dress code policy

Current Events, Oct 17, 2003

HANG UP YOUR LOW-RISE JEANS and put away your baseball caps: There's a new dress cede in town.

Tired students parading through school sporting baggy scarves, low-rise jeans, and towels on their heads, high-school officials in Stamford, Conn., took action. They replaced their old "anything goes" dress code with a new policy that, much like a skimpy outfit doesn't leave much to the imagination.

Topping the list of fashion don'ts: do-rage, revealing shirts, baseball caps, sunglasses, and spiked or studded accessories. Plus, students are not allowed to wear clothes that could be considered disruptive, obscene, or vulgar, or that have logos or pictures that convey illegal, sexist, or racist viewpoints.

Students say their fashion sense defines who they are, and that the policy stops them from expressing themselves. School officials maintain that the law is on the side of the school; courts have long supported school dress codes that keep disruptive or offensive clothing out of classrooms.

Dress for Success

Teens need to hit the books, not the fashion magazines, school officials say. They worry that students spend more time staring at other teens' clothes than they do looking at the chalkboard. And students are not the only ones distracted by crazy couture. "It could be a distraction to a teacher who's trying to teach," Westhill High's principal, Camille Figluizzi-Bingham, told Current Events.

Others say that students need to take school more seriously. "As far as I'm concerned, high school is a place of business. It needs to be taken seriously," Stamford schools' superintendent, Anthony Mazzullo, told CE. "You don't wear hats if you're walking into a corporate meeting."

Westhill High School junior Andrea Once says the dress code takes some pressure off of picking out clothes for school. But, she told CE, it would be even better if her school had uniforms. "I [wouldn't] have to be worrying every night about what to wear the next day," she said.

I Am What I Wear

Students say the policy doesn't just limit what they wear; it limits how they express themselves as well. "By telling us what we can wear, they are taking away our diversity as people and cultures," Michael Bowies, a junior at Stamford High, told the (Stamford) Advocate.

Mike Vesciglio, a senior at Westhill High, agreed. "A hat is part of the person," he told reporters.

Students say administrators are the ones who need to get back to the hooks. They say school officials should spend more time worrying about education and less time critiquing students' wardrobes. What does [my outfit] have to do with anyone's education?" Westhill senior Nicky Small asked the Advocate.

What do you think? Do dress codes help kids take school more seriously?

Get Talking

Ask students: What is the dress code at our school? Hew much does it affect what you wear?

Background

Perhaps the most famous incident of students successfully suing a school ever a dress code occurred in 1965 in Des Moines, Iowa John F. Tinker, 15, Christopher Eckhardt, 16, and Mary Beth Tinker, 13, were part of a group that decided to wear black armbands to protest the government's policy in Vietnam.

School officials got wind of the plan, and they adopted a policy that any student wearing an armband to school must remove it or he suspended.

John, Christopher, and Mary Beth wore the armbands to school regardless and were suspended after they refused to take them off.

Their fathers filed a complaint against the schools, but a judge ruled in the schools' favor.

An appeals ruled that the students' behavior was protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment because the students were quiet and passive, were not disruptive, and did not infringe upon the rights of others.

Doing More

Ask students to research the Tinker case. Have them discuss why the appeals court ruled in favor of the students, especially since many states support school dress codes. How does this situation differ from the one at the Stamford, Conn., high schools.

Link it

* Tinker et al. v. Des Moines case: htt://www.bc.edu/bc_og/avp/cas/comm./free _speech/tinker.html.