School Uniforms - not clear that school uniforms will reduce violence

Humanist, March, 1999 by Julia Wilkins

Also, school uniform policies infringe upon all students' First Amendment rights to freedom of expression. For a public-school uniform policy to be legal, it has to have an opt-out provision. If an opt-out is not offered, the school can do little to enforce the uniform code, as it is legally required to provide the child with an education.

Every child has the right to a free, public-school education, and that right cannot be conditioned upon compliance with a uniform policy. That precedent was set in 1969 in the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case, in which the Tinker children sued after being sent home from school for wearing black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War. The U.S. Supreme Court came to the aid of the children, holding: "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Unless they are expressing themselves in a way that threatens to disrupt the school environment, students have a legal right to choose how to dress.

The purpose of education should be to teach students the skills they need to live as free-thinking citizens of a democratic society. This involves learning decision-making and the ability to make educated and informed choices. Educated students who are prepared for this world will not be sucked into advertising campaigns aimed at them, will have the ability to follow rules based on internal moral values, and will have the decision-making skills necessary to choose what to wear each day.

A more effective way to prevent violence over clothing than banning the wearing of valued items would be to teach students to question the desirability of possessions such as expensive sneakers. This can be achieved by teaching students about the manipulative techniques of companies' marketing campaigns, the inflated prices of merchandise, and the use of sweatshop labor to produce the items. Other successful methods to reduce crime in schools include violence-prevention courses, police coordination with schools, and student-initiated crime reporting. It is our responsibility as educators to help students acquire the necessary skills to make educated and informed choices in life.

Could the way to solve all the mindless violence over clothing really be to force children to wear a school uniform? This is a simplistic solution that fails to address issues at the heart of the matter. Mandated uniforms are clearly a band-aid solution to a much larger problem that has its roots in the wider society and the environments in which young people are growing up. Uniforms are but a cheap educational reform that will do nothing in the long run to change the lives of students.

Julia Wilkins has a master's degree in social policy from the University of Bristol in England. She is a special education teacher in Buffalo, New York, and has published activity books in math and physical education for elementary school teachers.