Uniformity

Let's not forget that another hot button topic is the use of school uniforms. While defeasement, farming, and other larger more pressing issues have stolen the spotlight, the idea of wearing a school uniform is being discussed.

So, do clothes make the man? Or should you not judge a book by it's cover?

There's an article in the BCCT today that suggests uniforms are a good idea and will raise test scores. However, a quick Google of school uniforms and performance show a different conclusion: I dunno!

Isn't this the same argument that raged over the new school itself? Will a new school raise student performance?

Studies divided on effects of school uniform: But studies have revealed mixed results. And many Bay Area school officials acknowledged in interviews that they have never tried to measure whether the uniforms are working.

Are uniform policies controversial? Sure. So is implementation.

E-mail fires up Florida parents: Parents have complained saying they can’t afford the new clothing..."Everyone can afford Wal-Mart and if they can't they need to think about turning off their cable TV or stop buying alcohol or cigarettes and spend their money on their children." Ouch!

I'm generally for uniforms myself. I'm tired of clothing being a coolness factor in school and the kids who can afford $25 dollar sneakers being judged harshly against the cool kid with the $200 dollar superstar endorsed "performance athletic footwear". Let the kids all go with the same $20 dollar polo and $40 dollar khakis and get back to the real issue: education.

Academic benefits seen with uniforms
Parental support is key to a successful uniform policy, according to officials.
By JOAN HELLYER STAFF WRITER

Melissa Buchanan is glad she goes to a school where all the students wear uniforms.

“It’s really good that people don’t wear inappropriate things. Everyone looks the same,” said Melissa, a fourth-grader at School Lane Charter School in Bensalem.

A mandatory uniform policy went into effect at School Lane in 2007. The kids wear light blue shirts and dark or khaki bottoms.

“It was a good idea to do,” Melissa, 9, said. “It makes me feel good.”

School Lane is one of three local school systems to move toward uniformity in the past year:

The charter school implemented the policy after parents urged its governing board to require uniforms as allowed by Pennsylvania’s public school code, school officials said.

The Bristol school board also made a move to uniforms at the urging of district parents. The board did not implement an official policy but rather a procedure for students at Warren Snyder-John Girotti Elementary School to wear uniforms beginning this academic year.

Parents also were the catalyst in getting Bristol Township to implement a voluntary uniform policy that will begin in September for students in its nine elementary schools, district officials said. The school board’s legal representatives suggested the policy be voluntary, so the district would not face any legal challenges to it.

Kyong Growney, of Curtin & Heefner, LLP in Morrisville, is one of the attorneys who developed Bristol Township’s policy. Growney said she and board solicitor David Truelove encouraged the board to go the voluntary route to avoid potential constitutional challenges involving freedom of religion and freedom of expression.

However, a constitutional law expert at Temple University in Philadelphia, said neither of those constitutional freedoms apply to the uniform issue. Statutory law, not constitutional law, covers the religious aspect of the issue, said Mark Rahdert, a constitutional expert.

SUPREME COURT DECISION

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision about 20 years ago, ruled that religious practices that contradict an established law are not federal constitutional issues, he said.

The decision was based on the case of Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith. It involved two members of the Native American Church who were fired from their counselor jobs at a private drug rehabilitation organization after they ingested peyote, a powerful hallucinogen, during religious ceremonies. The former counselors filed suit after being denied unemployment compensation.

The high court’s majority found that an individual’s religious beliefs does not excuse him or her from complying with a law prohibiting conduct the government is entitled to regulate, wrote Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the majority opinion.

The same standard can be applied to the school uniform issue, Rahdert said.

“As long as the [uniform policy] is neutral with respect to religion and is generally applicable to all students in the school, it is usually upheld,” Rahdert said.

In addition, freedom of expression or speech is not a consideration with the uniform issue, the professor said. Instead, it’s an issue of conduct in the schools.

“In a school setting, students have diminished first amendment rights, partly because they are children and partly because they are in a school setting in which the state must maintain order and provide a conducive learning environment,” Rahdert said.

Growney declined further comment about the Bristol Township policy and the volunteer policy recommendation her firm made to the district.

Rahdert said the voluntary policy is sometimes implemented not just to avoid challenges that will be lost, but because school systems want to avoid the expense and distraction from a challenge.

He said even if a school opts for a mandatory uniform policy, it should provide for exceptions, including religious attire.

“[A district] should base its choice on what’s best for the school environment, and not based on constitutional principles, because I don’t think the constitution dictates one outcome or the other,” Rahdert said.

CHALLENGES RARE

There have been a few instances where the U.S. Supreme Court has heard cases about whether a uniform policy violates equal protection or discriminates against the poor, Rahdert said. However, those challenges are rare, because generally speaking, uniform policies are designed to be affordable, he said.

In recent years, a few other Bucks districts, including Bensalem and Central Bucks, as well as North Penn, and Upper Moreland in Eastern Montgomery County, have tossed around the uniform issue. However, they abandoned the idea, generally speaking, because the initiative did not have enough support from school board members, administrators or parents.

Other local districts also have not experienced a groundswell of support for uniforms, officials said.

For school systems that are considering a uniform policy, the U.S. Department of Education produced a manual to provide guidelines on how to implement such a policy. The first step is to get parents involved from the beginning of the process, according to the manual posted at www.ed.gov.

“Parental support of a uniform policy is critical for success. Indeed, the strongest push for school uniforms in recent years has come from parental groups who want better discipline in their children’s schools,” education officials said in the manual.

Melanie Scott, a School Lane parent, said the charter school’s uniform policy definitely has her backing.

“It’s a great idea,” Scott said. “Now it’s about school and not about who is cool.”

The push for uniforms began in the mid-1990s when the Long Beach, Calif., school system started requiring all elementary and middle school students to wear uniforms. The school board made the move after a statewide voucher initiative failed, according to Carl A. Cohn, who was the Long Beach superintendent during the move to uniforms.

During debate over the initiative, board members had promised residents and particularly parents that they would look for ways to improve the school environment, according to Cohn.

The district already had uniform policies in place on a pilot basis in 11 of its 70 elementary and middle schools, Cohn said. Those schools reported a better climate in terms of learning and safety than others where there was no uniform policy in place.

The district moved ahead with implementing the policy in all of its schools in 1994. Within a year, overall school crime dropped 36 percent, including a decrease of 51 percent in fights and 74 percent in sexual offenses, according to the federal education department.

VOLUNTARY VS. MANDATORY

Since then, school systems throughout the country have followed Long Beach’s lead and implemented their own uniform policies. Some are mandatory. Others are voluntary.

Not all of the policies have remained in effect, usually because parents were not supportive of the effort. For instance, Maymont Elementary School in Richmond, Va., implemented a uniform policy in the mid-1990s. The school reported improved behavior, increased attendance rates and higher student achievement, according to the U.S. education department.

However, the policy was discontinued several years ago, a school spokeswoman said, because parents were no longer in favor of the uniforms.

Other schools across the country report better success. Douglass Elementary School in Memphis, Tenn., is one of them.

Douglass implemented a voluntary uniform policy in the mid-1990s. The maroon or white shirt and khaki bottoms initiative became a mandatory policy about four years ago at the inner city kindergarten through seventh-grade school, said guidance counselor Aron Wyatt.

“[The students] are able to focus more. They are not being teased about their clothes,” Wyatt said. “It keeps you on task a little more.”

He also noted student academic performance has increased over the last few years, due in part to the uniforms.

The only challenge the school has faced because of the uniforms is from parents who said they could not afford the moderately priced clothes, Wyatt said. “We have a clothes closet to help out with that, if they don’t have the resources, so they can send their kids in the proper uniform,” he said.

Wyatt has some advice for schools planning to implement a uniform policy.

“Enforce it. Don’t just start it up and then let the kids come some days in their uniforms and some days [in regular clothes]. If you enforce it, you show them that you are serious about it. The kids will conform and the parents will conform,” the guidance counselor said.

Bristol Township officials said they went with the voluntary policy because they believe enforcement of the practice will not be necessary. Most district families will adhere to it as the district seeks to provide students with a better and safer learning environment, they said.