Saturday, August 28, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

New school year renews dress code debate

Dawn Nelson, 6, models her uniform for her mother, Sylvia, at Harmon Elementary School on Friday. Photo by Gary Thompson. Click image for enlargement.

Variations on a khaki code will be the student dress requirement at 27 Clark County School District campuses this year, a change that has been applauded, disparaged and questioned by families subject to the new rules of attire.

At Harmon Elementary School on Friday, fifth-grader Raluca Iclodean looked less than thrilled as she shopped the uniform fair with her father, Traian Iclodean. She left the Southeast Region school carrying a khaki jumper and a khaki skort and slowly shook her left hand from side to side when asked whether she liked her new clothes. Harmon's dress restrictions are new this year.

"She'll get used to them," said Traian Iclodean, adding that he wore uniforms to school in his native Romania. "I think it's a great idea. If all the students are wearing the same thing, everybody's equal."

A small number of district schools have experimented with optional uniforms in past years. The district also began a pilot program of mandatory uniform policies two years ago in the Southeast Region, with five elementary schools participating. The mandatory program was expanded this year to include five more elementary schools, but public division and a conflicted School Board are keeping the mandatory uniform codes out of the district's four other regions for now.

This year, the move toward stricter dress codes has spread to 27 of 301 schools, a trend that prompted school administrators to track the number of campuses that go beyond the minimum set by district policy for the first time. Uniforms and dress codes have become such a talking point that parents have started attending School Board meetings just to voice their opinion on the topic, even when the board is taking no action on issues that affect how students can dress.

"Let's get rid of this uniform business," Northeast Region parent Don Jacobs said at Thursday's School Board meeting. "I believe in modest dress, but I think this takes away some of my rights as a parent."

Jacobs said parents, not schools, should dictate what children wear. He also said he was skeptical of assertions that standard attire improves student achievement. After comparing Liberty High School student test results with comparable high schools, he said he didn't see proof of that. Liberty opened in 2003-04 with a dress code that limited student wear to red, white, blue and khaki. Denim is not allowed.

But Jacobs was in the minority Thursday. Five other speakers stood up to praise stricter student dress requirements. Gary Wakeman, a Sedway Middle School parent, said he approves of the campus' new dress requirements.

"Let's make school a place of learning and not a gathering place for the fashion elite," Wakeman said.

School Board Trustee Denise Brodsky, who represents much of the district's Northwest Region, said the increasing number of schools restricting student dress is starting to confuse parents. No one knows how the Dress for Success program differs from the Standard Student Attire requirements.

She also questions schools that are limiting student dress without following the district's policy on mandatory uniforms. The policy requires schools to survey at least 51 percent of parents and have 70 percent of the respondents showing support for mandatory uniforms.

Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Agustin Orci said that policy only applies if a school wants to adopt a mandatory uniform rule. Other dress codes that allow more latitude in what students wear do not have to conduct surveys.

But Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the district is playing word games. The ACLU has received numerous calls in the past few months from parents who see the dress codes as an infringement on their rights. He called the restrictions "Orwellian."

However, some parents call it economical.

Harmon parent Laticha Hickman has sons enrolled in grades one, two, four and five, and she couldn't be happier with the new dress code that allows students to wear khaki or navy bottoms and collared shirts that are yellow, royal blue, navy or white.

"I love it," Hickman said. "It's saving me money."

Harmon's uniform fair was put on by Shirtz, Logoz + Promoz, a Henderson company that also supplies clothing to Canyon Springs High School, Hummel Elementary School and Findlay Middle School, three of the 13 new schools opening Monday.

At Harmon, polo shirts were on sale for $6, long pants were available for $13 and shorts were priced at $10 a pair.

"I've been in the business for three years, but this is the first year I've done school uniforms," owner of Shirtz, Logoz + Promoz Marian Hinebauch said between orders. "There's such a need for it."

Hinebauch said teenagers seem to be the ones having the hardest time reconciling themselves to wearing uniforms. Parents, for the most part, have seemed happy about it, she said. She said she understands both sides.

"They're teenagers," Hinebauch said. "They want to wear what they want to wear."

Students who choose not to follow the stricter dress codes will likely find themselves pulled out of class to explain to an administrator why they're out of compliance.

The disciplinary procedure followed is the same one used for violations of the district's minimum dress code. First, students are counseled by an administrator. If violations become habitual, parents will be called in for a required conference. The purpose, said Northeast Region Superintendent Marsha Irvin, isn't to be punitive. It's to put students in the right frame of mind for approaching education seriously. Findlay Principal Tammy Malich agreed.

"I'm pulling students from 10 different schools," Malich said. "I wanted to create a Findlay family."