Freedom? (yeah, right)
Last year, the School Board of the Penn Delco School District (located near Philadelphia). Approved a mandatory Dress Code Policy for all students in grades kindergarten through twelve beginning in September, 2001. Amidst all the mass media hype about school shootings, the school district converted the local high school into a maximum security prison. Better to be safe than sorry! (yeah right.) The high school has camera's in every hallway, in order to monitor the shee…I mean, students. Students can't leave the crowded cafeteria during lunch break, and students are allowed to use the bathroom during class only twice a marking period. This is a school where people call you by your Student ID. Number, not your name. Now, to add further insult, we have to wear uniforms. The Uniform Policy requires all the students to wear collared shirts and pants with no more than four pockets. This might not sound like a big deal right now. But that’s the purpose of it. They want to gradually assimilate all of us into wearing a full blown uniform. The School Board really have no reason to make us wear uniforms. Here are their excuses:
The first excuse, " Such a Dress Code Policy will help to establish a more positive atmosphere conducive to education" is a joke. There is no evidence that wearing a collard shirt will make my day more positive. When I wear a collard shirt, I don't think to myself and say: "Wow! I'm wearing a collard shirt! My day will be more positive! Thanks Penn Delco!" You can hook everyone in school with an EKG monitor to our brains and you'll still find out that indeed the school atmosphere doesn't become positive because of our collard shirts.
The second justification "Such a Dress Code Policy will help to instill student discipline." Is also erroneous. A student will not become less of a mischief just because he is wearing a collard shirt. YOU CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER! A collard shirt doesn't have magical powers that prevent students from taking drugs and stealing school equipment.
"Such a Dress Code Policy will help to eliminate peer pressure dealing with student attire." Is the third lie. A collard shirt won't make a kid less of a dork than he was when he was wearing regular clothes. Collard shirts aren't some sort of unifying substance that will allow everyone to live harmoniously in a utopian society. Kids can still buy more expensive and trendier looking uniforms at the local abercrombie or gap store.
This Uniform policy will only keep the teachers from teaching, they'll make them focus more on the dress code than what they teach. The dress code is a silly rule, and will only cause more paper work in the administrative office. Kids will get unneccesary detentions with a school employee that will be there, and that employee will be paid, with your tax money. Imagine how much money the district spends on personell only to look after kids who don't wear the ridiculous dress code.If the goal of the uniform policy is to make the school safer, and to create a more positive atmosphere, we must think differently. Teachers should act like they care for their job, administrators should treat students like individuals. We're not sheep! We are humans! End the Dress Code Policy Now!