Uniforms
for school are out
but new dress code is now in
By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer
GALLUP — For all the Gallup-McKinley County School
students out there planning to show up for classes in your PJ's next
fall, forget about it.
It's one of the sartorial no-no's the Gallup-McKinley governing board
just added to its student dress code policy in an effort to make its
students ever more
disciplined, respectful and responsible and its schools ever more conducive
to learning, as the policy's preamble has it.
Along with the PJ's, you might as well leave the slippers at home as
well. You can also forget about chains attaching one body piercing
to the other,
belts
that hang more than six inches past the buckle, any kind of pins worn as
decoration, anything publicizing groups that promote violence or disrespect
toward others,
and those pants, shorts and skirts with those large words on the backside.
Those pants that don't fit at the waist or crotch, you can leave those at
home too.
And don't try leaving your shoelaces untied.
They're all restricted under the district's new student dress code policy,
along with everything else students already weren't allowed to wear to school.
The new restrictions, however, weren't the district's original intention.
When the board took up the issue back in February, member Bill Bright's only
idea
was to add a simple little sentence giving each school the option to design
its own student uniforms.
When principals asked the board to hold off on the idea until they had a
chance to think it over, they came back with a list of suggestions. Instead
of simplifying
the policy, they made it longer and threw out the uniform idea altogether.
Gallup Junior High School Principal Rick Carpenter said the revisions aimed
mainly at updating the policy to the times and making it easier for staff
to enforce.
They tried accomplishing the latter by taking out the few measurement requirements
referenced to the student's body and assigning them a specific measurement.
For example, instead of making sure shorts and skirts reach at least as low
as the
students' "extended fingers when standing straight," they'll now be
trying to keep them no more than three inches above the knees.
"We have some kids who have very short arms; we have some kids who have
very long arms," Carpenter said. "We wanted to make it consistent."
At the same time, Carpenter said, the principals added some leeway to the
policy. Shirt straps can now be as thin as one inch instead of three, for
example,
and exposed midriffs are OK so long as its only when the students' arms are
extended,
but not while standing straight.
The district also did away with its policy of restricting body piercings
to the ears.
As nose and eyebrow rings have grown more popular, Carpenter said, "it's
just not so much of a distraction as it was."
The change came a little late for one Gallup High School student, who's summer
school teacher forced her to remove the nose stud she had done just a few
weeks prior.
She didn't want to give her name, but couldn't make sense of the policy since
the stud was getting in no one's way.
"They're so tiny," she said, "I don't see what the big deal is
about it."
She also felt singled out, since she sees other students flaunting other
supposed dress restrictions every day.
"It's stupid because it goes on anyway," she said. "They have
people walking around with all kinds of tattoos and piercings, and they don't
do anything."
She also doesn't see the strict connection between dress and academics the
principals do. To her, it's merely an external expressions of one's individuality.
"Clothing, tattoos and piercings, it's just part of their personality. What
does that have to do with school?" she said.
The problem arises, the district contends, when those expressions become
safety issues, whether they're symbols such as particular colors that indicate
gang
affiliation or objects such as safety pins or wallet chains that can turn
into weapons.
The policy won't prevent a determined student from sneaking a razor blade
into school, but it can, Carpenter said, cut down on more common, or at least
more
obvious, weapons.
Bright still believes uniforms are the answer, that they'd be the easiest
way to address the safety concerns the principals are trying to solve.
Carpenter, however, said many of the principals have had bad experiences
with uniforms at other districts. Speaking from his experiences in Rio Rancho,
Carpenter
believes uniforms can actually be more trouble to enforce.
"They went to certain shades of colors, and that was a nightmare," he
said.
A good dress code, he said, should not turn teachers into fashion police,
but still imbue students with a decent sense of dress. Think PJ's.
"Everything we do in school is to teach a lesson somehow," Carpenter
said, and a dress code should be no exception. |
Tuesday
June 29, 2004
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