So you Do you feel that school uniforms should or should not be a requirement? Finally discuss why this is an important issue to consider."

UNIFORMS Are They a Good Fit?

By Marsha Boutelie From California Schools

Sixth-grader Tiffany gets sentto the principal's office because her teacher thinks the girl is inappropriately dressed. Tif- fany is wearing a micro-mini skirt rolled down to just above her belly button and a halter top that ex- poses her midriff.

Principal Judy Montgomery, of Sacramento's Bear Flag Elementary School, takes Tiffany home to change her clothes and to check in with her parents. Their reaction isn't what she expects.

"Her mother was upset with me," Montgomery says. "She said,'I think she looks cute!'"

In an era where some parents seem unwilling or unable to draw the "clothes" line with their chil- dren, where pop culture influences kids' clothing choices as never be- fore, and school safety—including

gang violence—is at the top of everyone's minds, school uniforms and dress codes can play a signifi- cant role. But what that role should be is open to interpretation and can be a source of frustration—and skirmishes.

Dress Codes and the Ed Code California Education Code 35183

gives school districts the power to regulate student attire, declaring that "schools need the authoriza- tion to implement uniform clothing requirements." On the other hand, it also states, "The governing board shall provide a method whereby parents may choose not to have their children comply with an adopted school uniform policy."

This legislation can be exasper- ating. For the most part, districts allow schools to decide whether to

Marsha Boutelie is a staff writer for California Schools. Condensed from California Schools magazine, (Fall 2007), with permission from the California School Boards Association (www.csba.org).

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UNIFORIVIS: Are They a Good Fit?

impose dress codes or require uni- forms. School officials I interviewed sought their constituents' buy-in, asking parents and students to vote on the issue and typically requiring about 75 percent approval to pro- ceed. That leaves the 25 percent who don't approve, and disapprov- ing parents certainly influence their children's attitudes, which adds to the difficulty in admin- istering the rule. Then there are parents who opt their children out of the provision.

At Montgomery's school, only about 1 percent of parents officially opt their kids out, "But there is a huge problem with about another 30 percent who do not sign a waiver and do not abide by the policy There is not enough meat in the policy to actually require families to abide by the uniform, which makes it very hard to en- force."

Every day, teachers must try to remember which students who are not in uniform have turned in waiv- ers signed by their parents allow- ing them to opt out, or they must take up valuable class time check- ing each child's status against a list. The task can be complicated by students who show up out of uniform without a waiver and stu- dents in only partial compliance— wearing the proper pants with a nonstandard shirt or, in a school that prohibits prints, wearing socks embossed with the image a Winnie- the-Pooh character. (Napa Valley

Unified School District is appealing a trial court judge's ruling that its restriction on prints violates stu- dents' freedom of expression.)

At Barbara Comstock Morse El- ementary School, Principal Mike Gulden uses a combination of logic and humor.

Uniforms "promote schooi safety and eniiance the learning environment, and diminish the ciothing competition."

"Kids don't want to do their homework, either," Gulden says. "The reality is, there's an instruc- tional purpose [to requiring uni- forms]. I tell them, 'We wear uni- forms because (1) that's our policy, (2) you see me wearing it, and (3) what if your parents came in to see me in the office, and I had my shirt- tails hanging out and three or four layers of clothes on?'"

Gulden wears the school's uni- form colors in some combination every day, and he believes that staff needs to "walk the walk" as well.

The vigor with which schools enforce apparel policies differs from school to school. Some will send children home for what may seem like a minor infraction. Others try to be accommodating, realizing that neither parents nor children can always adhere to policy.

"It comes up quite often from parents who are tired of trying to

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THE EDUCATION DIGEST

get the child to weai- the uniform," Gulden says. "I try to strike a happy medium and say, 'Wear It only two or three days a week' or 'rearrange the styles a bit.'" -,

"What if the uniforms disap- peared tomorrow?" Gulden asks. Differences between "our needy kids and fairly well-tordo kids might become magnified and polarize the campus," creating resentment and

. tension. "Life has enough hurdles for families and kids; I don't think one of them should be here at school. There's that stigma of 'my socioeconomic status.' Kids 5, 6, 7 years old shouldn't have to deal with that."

Leveling the Playing Reid Still, uniforms offer a variety of

benefits, according to supporters. Uniforms "promote school safety and enhance the learning environ- ment, and diminish the clothing competition," says Linda Rondeau, assistant superintendent of educa- tional services at Pittsburg Unified School District.

Her district's transition to uni- forms didn't occur without some snags.

"Elementary was really all right with it, [since] most of the students at our sites had been voluntarily wearing uniforms, for a couple of years," Rondeau says. "The junior high students were quite unhappy with it. Overall, parents were thrilled.

"Now, no one is looking at shirts

with graffiti or wondering if what [students] are wearing is affiliated with a gang or worrying about someone's designer sweatshirt," Rondeau adds. • Judy Hunt-Brown, principal at Maeola R. Beitzei Elementary School in Sacramento, says class- mates who are dressed alike are far less distracted.

"With today's fashions of mini- mal dress, there are fewer issues with clothes that are too reveal- ing," Hunt-Brown says. "Students spend less time talking about and analyzing everyone's dress. There are also fewer issues with the kind of shoes students need to have to be able to participate in physical education."

Empiricai Data and Everyday Experience In his 1996 State of the Union

Address, Bill Clinton challenged schools ''to teach character educa- tion, to teach good values and good citizenship. And if it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms." This often-quoted remark is cited by advocates as a primary argument for uniforms in public schools. But whether—or how much—uniforms promote safety remains subject to debate.

"It is not true that there has been no empirical research con- ducted to assess the effectiveness

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UNIFORMS: Are They a Good Rt?

of school uniforms on student be- havior and educational outcomes, yet there is much to be done," David Brunsma, a sociology, professor at the University of Missouri, wrote in The School Uniform Movement and What It Tells Us About American Education.

He went on to use reports from the U.S Department of Education's National Center for Education Sta- tistics to debunkthe notion that there is a correlation between school safety and uniforms. Quoted in a July 2006 article ori. GreatSchools.net, Brunsma said critics "appear, to want to continue relying on anecdotal aspects of the debate while sim- ply disregarding rigorous, sci- entific study of the issue."

It's not known how much time Brunsma has spent standing ina crowded hallway when classes let out. But elementary principals who do that regularly have a store of personal experience that contra- dicts Brunsma's academic argu- ment.

And, in any event, ridding their schools of gang colors is just one benefit principals attribute to uni- forms. There's also the ease with which students can be identified on field trips—and, on campus, the ease with which intruders out of uniform can be detected.

Hunt-Brown also embroiders a broader benefit onto the list; "Over- all improved student behavior as a result of uniforms results in few-

er behavior incidents on campus." John Ginn, principal at Sacra-

mento City USD's Bowling Green Charter School, adds another ob- servational benefit to the mix.

"Wearing uniforms is promot-. ing job skills at a young age," Ginn says. "We learn to dress properly for work, church, play, et cetera. Whenever we are lucky enough to have a student wear his uniform

" . ; . if it means that teen- agers wiii stop kiiiing eacii other over designer jackets, then our public schools shouid be able to require their students to wear school uniforms."

with a sports coat or blazer, we tell him that he is looking like an adult going to work." . .

To those who question whether uniforms smother students' cre- ative freedom of expression. Rondeau says no way.

"We hope to see students' cre- ativity [expressed] academically and. artistically," Rondeau says. "There was. a great article writ- ten by Jeffrey Earl Warren.re- garding school uniforms (San Fran- cisco Chronicle, April 2, 2007). His ending statement reads; 'Uniforms allow children the right to distin- guish themselves by the deeds they've done, not the duds they wecir."' Qf]

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