Stupid school administrators and uniforms

The BBQ Pit
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Story here

This is the high school in a nearby town. Last week, the newspaper ran a story about the school board considering uniforms. The school officials were complaining, among other things, students wore the “wrong” shade of khaki pants, coats that did not match, and long-sleeve shirts under their uniform shirts that weren’t the “proper” colors.

A slide show of “improperly-dressed” students was shown. An official bragged in the paper that they had walked around campus, asking to take photos for the yearbook. These photos were actually of students who were not dressed properly to their satisfaction. Now, notice how they deny this ever happened in the article above?

When I read the original, I was ticked off on behalf of the students. The officials showed no concern for the students, only for their wardrobe to match. These weren’t concerns about transparent shirts or exposed underwear, it was about “khaki vs. tan” and absolute control.

Now I read this article and I’m even more mad. Punishing a kid for distributing copies of a newspaper article? “Inciting a riot?” BULLSHIT. That ain’t right and I hope the ACLU turns this into a huge embarassment for the school.

Why am I so worked up? I went to the rival school of Picayune’s. Our administrators thought PMHS was the greatest thing ever and tried to emulate them in every way, including uniforms. There are a lot of poor families in the area and there was no way they could afford new uniforms, but a couple board members who were concerned about “gang violence” tried to push it through. They only stopped when they realized that if a student couldn’t afford the clothing, the district would have to provide it and there was no way they could provide uniforms for half of the student body.

Also, the town has one Wal-Mart and a couple of smaller clothing stores. Those stores carry uniforms for smaller elementary-age children, but if you are in high school it is much harder to find items, especially when you have to be concerned with having the exact colors and fabrics. Many local families get most of their clothes from Goodwill and the salvage store and can’t afford to drive to Slidell to buy the perfect outfit.

I don’t know what it is about these two schools and having control freak administrators, but it seems like common sense has gone out the window. The school boards spend so much time worrying about this crap that they don’t have time to be concerned with not having enough money for books or school facilities falling apart.

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The first article that set this all off can be found here

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Holy flurking schism! I do believe I’d move away from that town, and never look back. Whoever came up with those policies has quite a hunger to control every aspect of everyone they have power over’s lives. I wonder what their home life is like?

I can well believe that such a uniform code would end up causing the student’s parents to spend more money, rather than less. Controlling even the color of the COAT the students wear to school?!!! WAY too far. Makes my hackles rise. Then the various penalties that have been handed out, and the suppression of facts. I hope the ACLU cooks them thoroughly in court. Keep us updated on this, please?

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I’m just glad this is getting press coverage. The exact same thing happened at my high school and it got zilch attention - it wasn’t until the money angle was made painfully obvious that the administrators dropped it.

I’d love to find the kid who distributed the article and send him a “good job” letter. Reminds me of something I would have done back then :slight_smile:

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Jesus Christ. Hey, schoolboard, focus on teaching these kids something, not on the material of their fucking pants.

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Notice.

All English, Math, History and Geography classes are cancelled until further notice. During such scheduled classes, students will report to the Auditorium Runway for a fashion lineup. Any students wearing sub-standard fabric, deviant shades of tan (or khaki) or other revolutionary garb will be suspended. Color coordination is, after all, the most important thing.

Hell, and I’m in FAVOR of school uniforms.

  • PW

P.S. Who in the hell wrote that original story? Barely literate. I hope, at least, that they were properly dressed.

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The Picayune Item is not known for its editors’ abilities. These were actually two of the more coherent stories from the past week. Often, a story will repeat entire paragraphs for no reason. Spelling mistakes occur on a daily basis. I submitted a school menu listing from the paper to Jay Leno’s Headlines and got it shown: “Monday, Beer-A-Roni.”

Palewriter, you were probably kidding, but when my own high school tried this, the principal would make an announcement over the intercom for all the students to stand beside their desk while the teachers inspected us. Shorts had to go to the knee (if it weren’t for Faded Glory To The Knees, I would have had to live in jeans for a year), ALL shirts had to be tucked in (even football jerseys and sweatshirts), and rules were subject to be made up on the spot.

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Tell me this isn’t Mississippi you’re talking about. :slight_smile: I can understand if it is, but let’s face it, Picayune, MS isn’t the first place I think of when I think “Gang Problem”. Stupid School Officials, yes.

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My old highschool does that too…for certain kids. I live in a small town though, so a kid that has the right last name doesn’t have a problem. But everyone had to have the exact shade of kacki, brown leather shoes and belt, ect.

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Mississippi it is. Picayune’s “gang problem” is in its imagination. Administrators see a sudden influx of black kids and go “OMG, GANG!”

It’s sad, really.

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Dude, any small town like Picayune (if it’s anything like it was when I was there about 13 years ago) sees any group of two or more teenagers as a “gang problem.”

They need some Carson!

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Thanks Astra, I had a devil of a time reading the first one. Sheesh, perhaps they should spend more time teaching the Picayne writers how to write!!!

And less worrying if the exact perfect fabric and colors are being worn at the school.

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I teach in a high school that has uniforms. . . not a big fan. We’re not as strict as the schools cited by the OP. . .

That being said, you should see some of the shit these kids wear when we have “free dress” days. There MUST be som uniform or dress code.

Many of you would also be surprised to what length gangs will go to show their colors. Shoe laces, boxer waistbands, folders, notebooks, etc. many non-teacher folks could walk into a school and not notice any gang activity or dress at all, but it’s there.

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How, exactly, does dressing up help one learn? How does making the teachers into soi-disant `fashion mavens’ help them do their jobs? How does wasting time on petty crap like how the students are dressed help anyone except those who are on a power trip and shouldn’t be in positions of authority anyway?

I agree that we can’t let the little beggars run around nude. But insisting on a uniform? That’s for the military, where people are paid well enough to be expected to enforce chickenshit rules and, unless there’s a war on, they don’t have anything better to do. Schools must be held to a higher standard than that.

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Where I live, some middle schools have uniforms, others have only a code. The middle school kids attatch a lot of stigma to the schools that have uniforms - and lately I’ve heard that in some cities it even affects property values.

Is this really true or a load of B.S.

Having worked in a middle-school - the gang inclined kids are easily able to identify each other even if every kid is wearing the same “uniform”.

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Aside from the uniforms themselves, what do you think about the school’s reaction to the student who “attempted to incite a riot” by bringing the newspaper clipping to school?

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The school board in Memphis, TN imposed a dress code/uniforms last year. It is considered a positive thing here by the board, the populace and parents (for the most part). As far as I know we haven’t had any issue with the various “shades” of tan or navy blue. (Big focus has been on doing something about keeping the state from taking over the schools due to poor student performance and attendance)

Gangs are actually a serious problem in Mississippi, especially in Greenville. Don’t have personal knowledge of Picayune, but I would not be surprised.

I wonder what the policy concerning the use of the word “gay” is at this school?

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I can see a couple of valid uses for uniforms. One being the gang thing. The other, and perhaps more important in certain communities than others, is that it removes the need to compete with each other in terms of clothing. We all can remember the kids (boys and girls) who had all the nice clothes in school. With uniforms, at least while at school, there is no need to worry about fitting in or following the newest trend in clothing. You just wear your blue pants and that’s that. My public H.S. drew kids from very different backgrounds, including some of the wealthiest suburbs of Chicago, some very blue collar towns, and low income housing as well. Just watching the kids walk into school you could almost instantly tell who is from where based on the way they were dressed. I think uniforms would have been a great idea. BUT, once you have uniforms, you don’t need to have a hissy over the material or exact color shade of pants. It’s enough to say, everyone will wear blue pants and a white button down shirt…or whatever the uniform is.

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Come now. Everybody knows that life is better in a Ralph Lauren commercial. Or Stepford.

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Well, the idea, from what I’ve read, is not so much that the clothes help them learn, but that it creates a more equal “playing ground” for the students.

Supposedly it helps prevent certain distractions, such as:

The little rich bitches that look down their noses at the kids who can’t afford designer clothes.

The girls who wear much too suggestive clothing.

The boys who display “colors”.

And so on.

Supposedly the idea is that if kids don’t feel that they have to compete by having the coolest and hippest, or most provocative, or whatever, clothing, that that’s at least ONE less distraction to a good learning environment.

For that, I think it’s a good idea. But to go all Kamazotz and expect cookie cutter perfectionism, imho, is going too far.

Yes, make it more “fair and equal” by using uniforms and cutting out the “I’m so hip I wear a different outfit every day of the year,” but don’t be sending off hair ribbons to the CIA crime lab to make sure everyone is using the same exact dye lot and thread count.

Sheesh.