Dresscode

Should schools enforce a dresscode or even school uniforms?

Research has indicated that student behavior is influenced by student dress and grooming. In order to help insure proper and acceptable behavior on the part of the student, it becomes necessary to establish certain guidelines to aid parents and students in selecting the proper attire for school wear. Many administrators agree and have tightened up student dress codes or begun requiring students to wear uniforms as a way of reducing the risk of violence and creating a positive, productive learning environment. I also agree with an enforced dresscode and more specifically school uniforms. As I will show from many reports that more schools and states have seen the benefits to school uniforms and dresscodes and the positive affects such has on the classrooms.

Many public schools adopted dress codes and uniforms after then-President Bill Clinton endorsed uniforms in his 1996 State of the Union address:

"I challenge all our schools to teach character education, 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."

The National Association of Elementary School Principals points out that uniforms once were the trademark of a private or parochial school; today "the number of public schools adopting uniforms and strong dress codes is growing annually" (NAESP 2000). In a national survey of elementary and middle school principals conducted by NAESP in May 2000, 10 percent of the 755 respondents "said that their schools already had adopted a uniform policy and another 11 percent were considering the concept" (NAESP). Like private or parochial schools, discipline is what is normally taught to school age children at home and it would more likely have a greater impact on the child if enforced at school as well.

Concerns about school violence have led to increased interest in and acceptance of uniform policies, which specify what, must be worn or strict dress codes, which identify prohibited attire. Ronald D. Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center, states, "In the wake of school shootings, communities and schools are much more willing to embrace uniforms as well as a number of other strategies to enhance student safety". Even before the recent series of school shootings, a survey of principals conducted by the National Association of Secondary School Principals found strong support for uniforms. Seventy percent of the 5,500 principals surveyed at NASSP's 1996 annual conference said they believed "requiring students to wear uniforms to school would reduce violent incidents and discipline problems". After the attacks at Columbine, the way students dress has received greater attention because of the perceived dress of the attackers of the students that were in the "gang". And many believe that there were signs that should have caused alarm in what the students wore to school.

In addition to having a sense that uniforms may aid in violence prevention, many administrators believe that uniforms will reduce the need for escalated disciplinary actions, improve attendance, achievement, self esteem, and the overall school climate. Therefore, school uniforms have improved discipline, increased respect for teachers, increased school attendance, allowed for fewer distractions, improved academic performance, increased self-esteem and confidence, lower overall clothing costs, promotion of group spirit, reduction in social stratification and fashion statements, improved classroom behavior, lower rates of school crime and violence, and make it easy for nonstudents to be identified on campuses (NAESP). .

People who oppose uniforms point to unnecessary routinization, violates students' First Amendment rights. Students' First Amendment right to freedom of expression, and whether it is being taken from them, is one of the fundamental issues raised. Several legal challenges have asserted that students' freedom to select what to wear to school is a form of self-expression that schools are not entitled to interfere with. Courts have applied a test developed from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1968 decision on draft-card burning, U.S. v. O'Brien, to determine whether a school dress code is constitutional.