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Illinois School Board Journal
July/August 2002

New codes cover 'rock star' styles

by Linda Dawson

Linda Dawson is IASB director of editorial services and Journal editor.

Whatever the current fashion rage, it's certain to try to find its way into the classroom. Each generation looks for a way to express itself through apparel, whether it's a "poodle" skirt or a mini skirt, button-down collars or a muscle shirt, baggy pants or short shorts.

But while Britney Spears may look "totally awesome" in her low-rise jeans and a bare midriff, spaghetti strap top, she'd better not show up at school dressed like she's just stepped out of a Pepsi commercial. If she does, more than likely she will find herself in the principal's office.

Across Illinois and the nation, school administrators are taking a good, long look at how students dress for school and suggesting changes in student dress codes to combat ever-expanding excesses of visible skin in the classroom. As hemlines rise and necklines plunge, demand for student achievement fuels resolve to maintain an atmosphere that's conducive to learning, not one that fosters gawking.

A database search of newspaper stories published between late December 2000 and June 2001 revealed 13 Illinois districts dealt with dress code issues. Another 18 talked about changes to student handbooks, some of which specified dress code updates. And those are just the districts that warranted news coverage of their changes that were recorded in the database.

The news is the same from other parts of the country. The Dallas (Texas) Independent School District revised its dress code for the 2001-02 school year. The new code called for shirts to be tucked in, belts for boys and longer skirts for girls. According to an August 1, 2001, story in The Dallas Morning News, Dallas as well as neighboring districts in Arlington, DeSoto and Mesquite have banned "flip-flops, steel-toed shoes, tight skirts and shorts, sweatbands, skullcaps, leggings and biker pants." Also on the forbidden list in Dallas: body piercings, except for girls' ears.

According to Ken Zornes, president of the Dallas school board: "You look at a group of students, their shirttails are in, their clothes fit properly, they're well-groomed, and the impression you get is, 'Hey, this is a good school. People are on track; they're doing what they're supposed to do.' That's the impression that goes to outsiders, but the students make that impression on each other, too."

Schools near Baltimore, Maryland, are cinching up their dress codes as well, requiring shirts to be tucked in, and skirts and shorts to be "modest" lengths -- no shorter than a student's longest fingertip when they're standing with their arms at their sides.

According to a story in The Baltimore Sun, even students are increasingly put out at the way their classmates dress for school.

"People think that students don't care," Andrea Keefer, a 17-year-old student at Francis Scott Key High School in Carroll County, Maryland, told The Sun, "but a lot of us are insulted walking through the halls and seeing our peers wearing things that they wouldn't wear on the beach."

In Raleigh, North Carolina, the Wake County Public Schools' board of education approved a new dress code in April that will be in effect for 2002-03. The new code is more specific, according to information on the district's Web site, and gives principals "more support in enforcing the dress code at their schools."

The code states, in part: "Examples of prohibited dress or appearance include, but are not limited to, exposed undergarments; sagging pants; excessively short or tight garments; bare midriff shirts; strapless shirts; attire with messages or illustrations that are lewd, indecent or vulgar or that advertise any product or service of any kind; see-through clothing; attire that exposes cleavage; any adornment such as chains or spikes that reasonably could be perceived as or used as a weapon; and any symbols, styles or attire frequently associated with intimidation, violence or violent groups about which students at a particular school have been notified."

In developing the new code, the Wake County board turned to a task force with representatives from the administration, parents, students and teachers. The previous code had been described in an article from The News & Observer in Raleigh as "so subjective that standards varied widely." In addition to bringing a more unified voice to the issue of student dress, a new code was seen as a way to promote a better learning environment.

"There are certain ways to dress when people go to certain places," task force member Julie Nau was quoted as saying. "Schools are a place of learning. It's not the mall or a place for a sleepover. It's a place of respect."

In Illinois, principals who bear most of the enforcing duties for dress codes are also on the front lines to bring about change. Clyde Leonard, principal at Mt. Carmel High School in Wabash Community Unit School District 348, says part of that change is a matter of reorienting how students think about school. They aren't just going to school ... they're going to school.

"School is a place of work for students as well as teachers," Leonard said. "How would it be acceptable to look like that and be a bagger at the local grocery store? They wouldn't think of wearing short shorts and tank tops."

That reasoning, coupled with the idea that teachers should model good dress as well, led to the adoption of a new high school dress code that will go into effect for 2002-03. The biggest change: no sleeveless garments for girls or boys ... or teachers.

Girls with their choice of tops are the biggest offenders, Leonard said, but "what's good for the girls is good for the boys, too." If guys want to wear a basketball jersey to school, they will have to wear a T-shirt underneath.

Mt. Carmel High School already had a dress code that banned "anything that brings undue attention to the individual at the expense of the learning atmosphere." That included short shorts and garments that exposed "areas of the body that are normally clothed (midriff, back, etc.)." And it even mentioned items that could be deemed "obscene or highly inappropriate to the 'workplace.'"

But Leonard sees the new dress code as going a step further by spelling out more specific guidelines as well as putting an enforcement plan in place.

"The best enforcement is going to be in the classrooms of our schools," Leonard said. "Teachers are on the front line."

If a teacher spots an infraction of the dress code, such as a sleeveless shirt or a garment with holes that reveal too much, the student is sent to the principal's office. There, Leonard said, they will find him with his supply of clean, but rather nerdy,T-shirts, available to cover the offense.

"If they refuse to change or cover up, they're buying more trouble," he said. That's when Mom and/or Dad will get a phone call.

For repeat offenders, progressive discipline steps would go from a lunch detention, to Saturday school, to in-school suspension, then to out-of-school suspension, and ultimately expulsion. The final steps are ones Leonard doesn't want to have to use.

"We're in the business of trying to keep kids in school," he said, "but they don't have the right to break the rules over and over again."

While the former dress code helped ensure an orderly, safe school, the faculty and administrators see the new code as a way to improve on a good thing as well as a way to nip inappropriate fashion statements before they become rampant.

Steering the trend away from risqué was also the motivation when Central High School in Naperville Community Unit School District 203 took its new dress code to the school board as part of its student handbook changes for 2001-02.

Tom Paulsen, who has been principal at Naperville Central for 20 years, prepared students and parents for the change by distributing the new handbook, along with a letter of explanation, last summer ... well ahead of the back-to-school shopping rush in August. In return, he said, he received about 15 or 20 e-mail messages from students who were concerned about the changes. Considering that Central has 3,000 students, the vocal student complaint rate was less than 1 percent.

On the other half of the home front, not one parent complained, he said.

As with Mt. Carmel, the idea for a new dress code originated with the administration at his building. "We felt we needed to take steps to reverse the direction (student dress) was heading," Paulsen said.

While changes were made, they were not drastic, he said. The previous dress code already said no to bare midriffs. The new code simply added spaghetti straps to the no-no list and extended the taboo on sleeveless garments to guys as well as girls.

When they were researching proposed changes, Paulsen said, the administration looked at what neighboring Wheaton Warrenville Community Unit School District 200 had done the previous year.

But just because your neighbors have adopted a different policy doesn't mean everyone even in your own district will want to comply. Both Mt. Carmel High School and Naperville Central have run into resistance when asking to have their new policy be effective district wide.

Whether school administrators don't perceive as big a problem with sleeveless garments on younger students or younger students are more likely not to be as vulnerable to more revealing fashion fads, middle schools and elementary schools are often more reluctant to go beyond basic dress codes. (See "Board's role in dress codes.")

In Mt. Carmel, the high school asked the school board to extend the new dress code to middle school students. Middle school personnel didn't see the need, Leonard said, and the request was denied.

In Naperville, the changes apply to just one of the district's two high schools. With a new principal at Naperville North this past year, there was a hesitancy to make any changes before Ross Truemper came on board, Paulsen said. But there is talk about making the two high school dress codes more compatible.

"We have tried to get the district to buy in for K-12," Paulsen said, "but we have not been successful as yet."

Even though the changes have not been district wide, Naperville Central has experienced what Mt. Carmel is hoping to achieve: a better dressed student population.

"Over the year, we've had to battle from time to time," Paulsen said, "but if you look down our halls, you won't seen any flagrant violations ... although we may have a top or two that will slide up."

The bottom line at Naperville Central: "We have a better appearance in our school from a year ago." And that was the goal.

"Board Approves New Dress Code Policy," Wake County Public Schools System Web site, (http://www.wcpss. net/news/dresscode.html), accessed May 16, 2002

Hui, T. Keung. "Wake considers unified code for student dress," The News & Observer, December 31, 2001 (http://www.newsobserver.com/)

Jackson, Mike. "DISD, other districts design more stringent dress codes," The Dallas Morning News, August 1, 2001 (http://www.dallasnews.com/)

McMenamin, Jennifer, and Brown, Lane Harvey. "Area schools ponder stricter dress codes," The Baltimore Sun, May 21, 2002 (http://www. sunspot.net/)