Brian Zimmerman, writing for the Richmond Palladium-Item, reports that Richmond High School has suspended 169 kids for dress code violations. The article says that, under a new dress code, students have been prohibited “from wearing clothing with any logos or designs of any kind — even stripes, plaid or floral prints. Additionally, students cannot wear excessively tight or baggy clothes or low-cut shirts.” Someone I know who is a parent of an RHS student has said that “low-cut shirt” means something that shows the collar bone.
Seems to me that, when you have this level of noncompliance, you have to consider that the system being implemented is to blame. And, if a school is going to ban a big percentage of normal street clothes, it should probably just go to uniforms and be done with it.
“Protesters” are gathering this morning at the high school. This seems like a great use of administrative and community time and attention. I am sure it will help the dropout rate.
For families struggling to keep food on the table, being told in the month leading up to the start of school that you had to re-outfit all of your kids for school was a little much: Especially since almost no local stores carry no logo/design, “solid colors” (no stripes or plaid (got to keep those Scottish gangs out of the schools . . . )) clothing.
It is funny to see the kids now – I was out on a run yesterday and all the youths were walking around like they were in a Benetton ad.
I know I’m probably in the minority here, but why don’t they go to a uniform? As a parent, I can truly see the benefits. Also, given the current economy, it would be nice to not feel the pressure to buy over-priced clothes simply to market a particular store. As someone who appreciates high-end labels, I can only justify the investment when those items are of better quality. You just can’t do that on a $40 ultra-thin t-shirt, simply because it says A & F.
So, Richmond: As the saying goes, “Sh*t or get off the pot!”. And I vote for the 1st – Just Do It! (oops, that’s a label) Rather, go for the uniform!!
This is good: The day AFTER they suspend 169 kids for dress code violations, they announce the creation of a fund to help poor families get clothes:
http://www.pal-item.com/article/20090820/NEWS01/908200302/1008/rss
Maybe this is just a deviously clever way to give the kids a civics lesson.
Floral prints are the devil. The red devil. Er….wait…um…
Did you see the parents who were complaining on the news? Yipes. No real evidence, but I imagine that the folks complaining are the same families which pushed the administration to implement the code in the first place. As an IPS parent, trust me, dress codes are wonderful. Really, is it surprising that many people “didn’t know” about the dress code? I don’t have the exact dates, but I doubt this was announced on Monday and implemented on Tuesday.
This must be system-wide. Emma had to go shopping for new duds for our four year old for preschool in Richmond. He’s always impeccably dressed (saddle shoes, for example), but he had some stripes, which were a no-go.
I don’t have any kids in the Richmond Schools, but yes, this is a huge problem here. There has been a dress code here. It was revised just before school let out. However, it was not clear apparently until just before school started that only plain clothes would pass muster. Plain apparently means no stripes, polka dots, plaids, logos,checks, flowers, or other patterns are allowed. School logos, such as the RHS Red Devil, are allowed, however. Many parents had already purchased clothes for their kids and cannot necessarily afford to go out and get other clothes. It may be too late to make exchanges, or perhaps receipts have long since been lost. From what I can tell, RCS did not work with the local retailers to see to it that conforming clothes were available. To make matters worse, the superintendent, who seems to be a reasonable person most of the time, actually made a comment along the lines of patterned clothes possibly having hidden messages in them.
A year or so ago, the school system wanted to require uniforms, but parents objected. I think that Doug has hit this on the head. The school is trying to have the kids wear uniform clothing without actually requiring uniforms. In the process, however, they have created a huge problem. There is a lot of confusion about what is and isn’t allowed along with inconsistent enforcement of the rules. Stories are circulating about students being sent home or kept in the school libraries for wearing shirts that showed the collarbone (!) , jeans that had a few differnt colored threads on them, and crew neck shirts that have one color for the body and another for the neckline.
While I do think that some of the parents have been really defiant, I don’t blame them. I’d be upset if I’d bought modest clothing for my kids in June or July, only to find out in August that I would have to buy new clothes with absolutely no logos or patterns with collars that come up to the chin, apparently. It is pretty hard to find clothes that aren’t school uniforms that have absolutely no patterns or logos on them. There seems to be a real disconnect between the people who run the school system and the people who have children in the school system. Many of the people with school age children are in low-wage jobs. The people on the school board are part of the dwindling economic elite–which isn’t all that elite anymore–in the community. I’m not certain, but I believe that many of them no longer have children in the school system. The school board and administration mean well, but they are tone deaf to the concerns of the struggling parents and families.
I might add that I was in RCS with Doug’s sister, waaaayyyy back in the day. If there was a dress code, I wasn’t much aware of it. Of course, back then no one worried about gang colors and such. I went to Dennis Jr. High for one year before my family moved to the east side of town. At Dennis, it seemed that anything was allowed as long as you didn’t show up naked. People wore shorts, halter tops, mini skirts, tight jeans, low-cut tops, etc. The cheerleaders were allowed to wear their uniforms on game days, and their dresses and skirts were mighty short.
We moved to the east side, and at Test Jr. High, the rules were much more conservative. Girls were being sent home all the time for wearing low-cut tops (which weren’t all that low-cut) and dresses without slips. I was never sent home, but I did have a couple of dresses with low bodices (no cleavage revealed) that I would not wear to school, because other girls were sent home for wearing similar things. Then I went to RHS for grades ten through twelve, and it was back to anything goes. I don’t remember hearing about anyone getting in trouble about the clothes they wore. Other than at Test, clothing just wasn’t that big of a concern in those days.
Steganography paranoia. That’s unexpected.
At Test, we had bigger problems than clothes. Mileage probably varies, but of the schools I went to (Charles Elementary, Test Jr. High, Richmond High School, Miami U, and Indiana U), Test was the scariest.
Mileage definitely varies. I never had any problems at Test. Maybe it’s not fair to judge, because I was only there one year, but I thought Dennis was worse than Test. Of course, neither school was bad, IMO.
The preppy look was in when I was at RHS (along with a sorto bohemian look). I remember one of my classmates wore kelly green cords with little navy blue whales all over them. I wonder what message he was trying to send us, LOL!
@Mr. Kemp: I think that some of the local stores did carry uniform clothes that were intended for Galileo and the Catholic schools. Those clothes were probably purchased many weeks ago by the parents who have children in those schools, however, and would probably not be available now.
I think that RCS really blew it with this dress code. It was poorly planned with little thought given to the impact it would have on parents and children. This policy was supposed to get the kids to focus on learning, yet it is having the opposite result.
When did islamic extremists take over the school system? Sounds like that is the only dress that would be appropriate!
I have to agree. Disallowing normal patterns such as stipes, plaids and florals seems like they are making thier own jobs too difficult. If they want to restrict the clothing that much, uniforms would be a better choice. Especially if the idea is to reduce/eliminate problems such as gang colors and symbols.