Dress Code Breaking News??

2 10 2006

From my breathlessly fraught online news this morning -

Schools continue to address dress codes

Every year, teachers and principals exhaust themselves trying to coax students to adhere to the dress code. When the kids violate it, they get sent home or — even worse — the schools call the parents to come and get them.

Check back with Tallahassee.com today for more updates to this story and tomorrow in the Tallahassee Democrat for the full story.

That’s it, the whole “front page” item, the first thing I saw opening the Monday “paper.” AFAIK there is no dress code hard news, while there’s plenty of actual news to be following, even at School and certainly in the capital city where our president’s brother presides as governor.

But check back with me throughout the day for breaking dress code news updates!!!!!!

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5 responses to “Dress Code Breaking News??”

2 10 2006
misedjj (13:07:58) :

UPDATE! REad all about it!
As of 1:06 pm, I found THIS breaking news:

“Dress codes vary from school to school”
(No wonder schools are failing! - JJ)
By Marci Elliott
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

What may be in fashion may not be acceptable in local schools.

Although it may irk some students not to be able to wear the latest navel-bearing halter top or below-the-waist baggy jeans, there are policies in place and penalties to pay for violations-no matter how fashionable the prohibited apparel may be.

The Leon County School District does not have one, single blanket dress code that covers the whole system, but it does have a policy in the Student Code of Conduct that sets the framework for what types of clothing are allowed on school campuses.

“We do have a policy, but it has very little specifics,” said district spokeswoman Raine Smallridge.
“There are certain preclusions covered in the policy, but the codes vary from school to school and are tweaked by each School Advisory Council. They’re all founded on the basic laws of decency and safety, and we can only hope that students use common sense in following them.”

Read more online later today at Tallahassee.com. Read the full story in tomorrow’s Tallahassee Democrat.

3 10 2006
misedjj (13:56:32) :

AT LAST! The rest of the story… ;)

Mostly random-seeming quotes that made me laugh. Especially the one about how you might have to settle for a not cute- shirt from the office if your parents can’t bring you a cute one! Also, what’s up with admonishing parents to “let kids be kids” at school but xxx-rated on the weekends at home??

“If there are any violations, the student gets sent to the Office of Student Affairs and the parents are called to bring something else to wear,” she said. “Or else you get sent to the Guidance Office to get a T-shirt - and some of them are old and not cute at all.”

Valerie said Godby High’s dress code is pretty basic: no bare midriffs or navels, and no loose pants hanging off boys.

“These are things that are pretty obvious, but there are also things that have hidden meanings - like T-shirts with ‘Snow Man’ or ‘Trap Stars’ (drug sellers) on them. They are code words for drugs, and these things are not acceptable,” Valerie said. “Sometimes you see a shirt with ‘Corona’ (brand) or other names for alcohol. And of course, they’re not appropriate.”

Deshone Hedrington, assistant principal for student affairs at Lincoln High School, said that out of a student population of 2,000 at her school, there are about 10 to 15 dress-code violations a month.

“While we want students to have a right to show their freedom, we encourage them to show respect as well,” Hedrington said. “We do have a dress-code policy, and we do enforce it. There are consequences for violators, such as lunch detention or Saturday school. And I have to tell you, once they get sent to one of those, there are no more violations.”

Michelle Gayle, principal of Griffin Middle School, flinches when she thinks of what her students might wear if there were no dress code.

“Ours is a little bit different from what adults would want, but it is safety-related and concentrates on a healthy learning environment,” Gayle said. “It’s pretty stringent. If the young men wear lace-up shoes, lace them up. For the young ladies, we don’t want them wearing flip-flops - but we don’t want them wearing stilettos, either. And for the young men, we want shirts tucked in and waist bands - where else? - at the waist.”

For the girls, Gayle added, there are four Bs that should never be seen: belly, back, butt and breasts.

“You don’t have to buy into these things,” she said. “The fashion industry may be pushing them, but you’re finding way too many clothes that are just not appropriate for school. Let kids be kids - but save this other stuff for the weekends.”

3 10 2006
misedjj (14:00:34) :

And I wasn’t clear on whether it’s the drug shirts or the actual drugs that are “not acceptable” at this school?

28 11 2006
misedjj (09:32:51) :

Governor Bush was on the radio this morning talking about fostering the “Culture of Preparedness” he sees as vital to Florida surviving hurricanes.
It seems to me this is the right idea for improving public education — changing the whole culture that prepares kids for parenthood, citizenship and career. Not just changing their shirts!
(Or their multiple choice pencil bubbles but that’s another rant.)
The power of this dress code story is in how well-worn but ill-fitting it continues to be after all these years.
It’s the Culture, Stupid. Change their culture, change their world, which put in current culturally relevant terms might evoke “save the cheerleader, save the world”– and saving her doesn’t mean fretting over her algebra grade, much less clucking at her cleavage and throwing an old shirt over it in the guidance office…Kids and teens live in a very real culture even if it seems like a comic book, one that School does not control or define (much as it wants to believe otherwise) and marginalizes itself further by refusing to engage.
And this UPDATE -
Just saw NYT review of new Colin Powell bio, quoting his sister on dress code spit-and-shine that DOES have power to shape culture and thus his life choices:

When her kid brother exhibited a strange new passion for church-going, Marilyn Powell decided he was “as much enthralled with the pageantry and costumes as he was imbued with the Holy Spirit.”
A few years later, when Colin Powell, an otherwise aimless freshman at City College in New York, enrolled in the R.O.T.C. program, those who knew him best would conclude that he was less interested in serving his country than in the spit and the shine.
“What attracted him more than anything else was their uniforms,” Karen DeYoung writes in her account of Powell’s life. “The young cadets looked sharp in their dark brown shirts and ties and gleaming brass buckles.
Compared to his solitary, stumbling progress through college, they seemed to belong to something and to know where they were going.”
The young Colin Powell seems to have been a character in search of a role, who sensed that it would be easier to play if it came with a costume. . .

28 11 2006
School Culture: Disasters and Dress Codes « Cocking A Snook! (11:14:00) :

[...] Related Snook dress code story and comments here. [...]

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