UNIFORM STANDARDS: Dressing for success

Parents pleased, students distressed by clothing codes

Baggy jeans, logoed T-shirts and sneakers have served as the public school student's unofficial uniform for years. This fall, however, plenty of those kids will instead be wearing khakis and monochromatic collared shirts as a strict new dress code that began three years ago in the Clark County School District's southeast region spreads to schools across the valley.

Seven schools in the district's northeast region have adopted the new dress code for the 2004-05 school year, which begins on Monday. The new Canyon Springs High School will open with the dress code, and students at Mojave High School and Bridger, Cram, Findlay, Sedway and Swainston middle schools also will be required to change their style of dress.

"I hate it. It's my senior year," said Alisha Read, a student at Mojave High School. "I want to wear T-shirts and jeans."

Though the new dress code is much stricter and more specific than the district's standard code, which prohibits things like spaghetti straps and crop tops, administrators in the northwest adamantly deny that the new standards constitute a turn toward school uniforms.

"It's not a uniform," said Assistant Region Superintendent Kate Kinley. "It's standard school attire. There's a choice within certain parameters. It's very broad-based."

But Carolyn Reedom, assistant region superintendent for the district's southeast region, said similar dress requirements in her region are, in fact, uniforms.

"In the southeast region, we have mandatory uniforms in nine of our elementary schools," Reedom said. "The difference between that and standard school attire is that the new policy pretty much dictates what (students) are allowed to wear."

Southeast elementary schools that are following the newer dress code are Vanderburg, Twitchell, Lamping, Walker, Sewell, Harmon, Hummel, Taylor and Bennett Elementary School in Laughlin.

Four schools in the district's southwest region also are adopting the stricter dress codes this fall. Students at the new Spring Valley High School and Tanaka Elementary, and Garside and Cashman middle schools will follow the new policy. Schools in the northwest region have yet to adopt different dress codes.

But are khakis and collared shirts uniforms or aren't they? It depends on whom you ask.

"The difference is a matter of semantics," said Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. "It's disingenuous not to call them uniforms. A simple dress code would be to require students to wear what's appropriate to school -- no mini-skirts or sleeveless outfits."

District regulations allow the establishment of mandatory school uniforms if 51 percent of parents are surveyed, and 70 percent of the respondents are in favor of the policy. Schools do not have to conduct parent surveys for standard school attire, like the current dress policies dictating the length of shorts and mini-skirts.

"The difference between the two approaches is that with required uniforms there's not an option," said Agustin Orci, the district's deputy superintendent of curriculum. "The other one, what they call 'standard school attire' or 'dress for success' includes recommendations. There's a series of choices kids have. One is a requirement, the other is strongly suggested. They can wear other things but they are encouraged not to.

"In the southeast, there's a board and policies that govern the surveys. With (standard school attire) we expect the school to get a general consensus, but it's a less formal process."

Lichtenstein called the district's new dress code policy "Orwellian in its double-speak."

"The (code) is designed so everyone will look alike," he said. "That's a uniform. Refusing to acknowledge that is demonstrating to the students hypocrisy and dishonesty and setting a really bad example."

Lichtenstein said if parents were to approach the ACLU with complaints about the new codes, his office would take up their case. This is unlikely, however, because most parents seem to be in favor of stricter dress requirements for their kids.

"I wouldn't mind if they went full uniform," said Rob Read, Alisha's father. "I've read up on some of the studies on it. (With uniforms) there's higher academic achievement and less problems."

"The kids don't like it and the parents do," said his wife, Jan Read. "They've found that the kids excel better with uniforms and I think it takes away the whole stereotype of who's got the designer jeans and who doesn't."

"Parents really like it," Reedom said. "It's a lot cheaper to outfit your children in uniforms than it is in regular school attire, and it reduces the hassles in the morning in terms of students getting ready for school. It eliminates put-downs regarding what students are wearing. In the schools that have used (uniforms), the discipline problems were reduced significantly."

"We're really looking at promoting school safety and improving discipline and the learning environment," Kinley said. "Students are so concerned about peer pressure and what they are wearing. We're trying to get away from that."

But Lichtenstein said studies touting the effectiveness of uniforms are anecdotal at best.

"There have been those who have touted uniforms as a panacea for all of the problems of the school district," he said. "That approach hides some of the real issues concerning funding, disparity, how the school district is doing its job. Despite all of the anecdotes, the research on the effect of uniforms does not show any impact on the schools doing their job of teaching."

Effective or not -- uniforms or not -- thousands of Clark County students will be dressing differently this school year. Most are not happy with the arrangement, but some don't mind so much.

"I think it's going to make us feel like we're at a private school," said Alisha's brother, Mojave ninth-grader Tristan Read. "Everyone wants to wear different clothes, but now we'll all look the same."


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