My doctor and my youngest brother, who happens to be a doctor, do not approve of my lifestyle. I drink too much coffee, smoke, enjoy the occasional adult long-necked beverage, and do not exercise, at least not on purpose. The good news (for me) is I'm still alive. The bad news is, they do not approve and I am not going to change in that department. Of all the vices available today, mine are still legal and socially acceptable, at least in some quarters. (Though I will admit, when both New Orleans and Paris went smoke free I was taken aback.)
Life styles. What is acceptable to you may not be acceptable to me. We have obese kids, and I worry about that, but I do not think we can change that via board policy, handbooks, counting tater tots or PE. To me, that is a life style issue. If you want to eat until you are fat, and you can either afford it or have no choice but to acquire via WIC high volume, high fat foods, then so be it. Your choice. We have not made obesity illegal, though we are getting close.
How about tattoos? I don't have any, but people I love do. Is that OK?
How about females wearing very tight or very low cut tops? Is that OK? Sure seems to be OK on prime time network TV. How about pants that are worn so low that both underwear and rear cleavage show. Is that OK? How about guys with long hair. Professional sports allow it. How about guys with facial hair? OK with you? Kids with purple or blue hair? Feathers? Piercings? No underwear? On and on we go.
The bottom line is we are a public institution and we will enforce community values whatever the community defines those values to be. If everyone is required by policy to wear jeans, have a burr haircut and drive a pick up truck, then we will enforce that. If, on the other hand, everyone is required to wear Stacey Adams shoes, a wife-beater undershirt, a long sleeve shirt unbuttoned all the way down, and low rider slacks, we will enforce that.
As a public educator I have been through it all. In the 70's we enforced boy hair length to the extent that guys wore wigs to school so they could be socially acceptable and not get expelled. Girls went bra-less, and male administrators had to contact parents. Been there, done that. Fashion changes, policy changes.
Dress codes reflect community values. If the community has a strong sense of what is OK and what is not OK, we (the collective, hired, professional public school administrators) know where to draw the line because our elected Board has said, "Here's the line." The more diverse the community, the more difficult it is to draw the line. Life Styles.
It is extremely difficult to be a public servant and have some of the public you serve be OK with what their children wear when they walk out the door, and another whole group of parents not OK with what other children are wearing when they walk out the door. Dress codes are a no-win deal for school administrators, even after the Board has drawn the line, because any student who shows up in violation of the dress code may have already passed inspection and approval by a parent or guardian. I more than understand how a parent feels if the school says what their child is wearing is not OK after the parent has already said it is OK. Hence the school uniform movement and the standardized dress movement . Let's just legislate what the kids can and can't wear, then we enforce what parents are either unwilling, unable, or are oblivious to enforce. Or, let's just not have a dress code and let anything be OK. Many large urban districts have gone to that because the lifestyles in their systems are so diverse. Worst case scenario is to have a defined policy and ignore it. I agree with the Board totally on this: no point in having a policy and not enforcing it.
Our dress code policy is pretty clear and varies as it should by campus. It is clear because our community is homogeneous enough to have a clear sense of boundaries regarding what is acceptable. I expect our principals to enforce our dress code. I also expect them to be reasonable, professional, experienced school administrators and not swing a hammer when a love pat will do.
We (again the collective, public school administrator we) are not skilled fashion police. So much of what kids wear and do to their bodies today goes beyond our kin. It flies beneath our radar, unless something truly outlandish jumps out at us. Lady Gaga would not get past the front door.
We are also simple-minded. We have to be to withstand court challenges that will eventually come. If skirt length is a value, do we exempt cheerleaders? If facial hair on boys is a value, do we exempt the quarterback? We only withstand challenges legally when we can demonstrate fair and consistent enforcement. We can avoid legal challenges and community uprisings, if we attempt to use some wisdom in our application of rules.
Of all the issues facing public schools, this one, at least for me, is way down on the list. We have standardized testing that labels kids, teachers, schools and school systems for years based on the lowest scores achieved by one small sub-population of students. We have huge funding issues, both in terms of adequacy and equity. We have large constituencies that are lobbying for a variety of comprehensive programs that we simply do not have enough resouces to provide. We have a state and a federal accountability system that will always find something wrong with something we do no matter what we do.
At the same time, we have huge successes. Our community supported a bond election for a new high school! We have been awarded a FEMA grant to build a large unique domed gymnasium that will also serve as a safe room. We have achieved the highest ratings in the school financial accountability system. We have shown continued growth in student outcomes. We have implemented a highly rigourous curriculum across the board. We are implementing a new class to teach kids building trades while they actually build a house. We are doing many, many things well and will continue to strive to do so.
And, we will enforce the dress code.
Mr. Wells you are so right that this is way down the list of issues facing public schools. It is unfortunate that as educators we find it necessary to worry about what our kids are wearing when we should only worry about what they are learning. Unfortunately, sometimes these things are deemed necessary to enforce. What I do think is important for all to remember is that every rule made is liable to an exception that sometimes is the challenge. Revell in your successes, your district seems to be doing amazing things....and enforce away!
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