Should schools adopt dress codes?

Current Events, Sept 19, 1994

California's public schools have been given the power to impose the ultimate dress code-requiring students to wear a uniform. Governor Pete Wilson explained that the purpose of the new law is to discourage students from wearing gang colors and symbols-clothing that could lead to violence between rival gangs.

"It used to be that students only had to worry about putting together clothes that matched," Governor Wilson said last month. "Today, the wrong combination can get you killed."

Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin explained the goals of the law:

* "The real goal here is to break gang affiliations," she said.

* A second goal, she said, was to end "the expensive clothing competition that goes on between children."

State authorities said that the decision to require uniforms was up to local schools. But the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposes the law anyhow. It said that there was no proof that uniforms reduce crime or help learning. And ruling out T-shirts with messages could violate students' freedom of speech, the ACLU said.

Many school dress codes elsewhere ban some types of clothing, but do not go so far as to require uniforms. Amado Cruz, principal of Hartford (Connecticut) High School has banned baseball caps in his school to preserve discipline. "You have to distinguish where student rights stop and public safety takes over," he explains.

Yet any dress code worries some people. If a student's clothing "does not disrupt the educational process or constitute a threat to safety, it should be of no concern to the school," says a New York ACLU official.

What do you think? Are dress codes a good idea?