While I am generally in favor of uniforms for public school I am not unwavering in my belief. However, if any student should wear uniforms it should be the High School students. Some of them are the ones that dress inappropriately, with so called baggy pants, revealing tops or expensive designer labels. Why would anyone vote for requiring Elementary/Middle School students to wear uniforms and then try to exempt High School students? When is the last time you saw a third grader dress inappropriately for class? It’s this gutless, backwards and embarrassing type of thinking by our School Boards that keeps South Carolina fighting hard for last place. Congratulations, School Board, another stroke of genius ….. As we all expected.

Why in the world would Beaufort High ban the kids from wearing cargo jeans and shorts? That sounds a little ridiculous because the cargo style has been pretty poplular for some time.

This morning I found my 8th grade daughter sitting at our kitchen table wearing these little shorty short shorts. They weren't "show your cheeks" short, but they certainly didn't fall below her finger tips. I immediately informed her that she was not going to wear them to school. She asked why, then proceeded to tell me that "everybody" wears them that short and the eighth grade teachers don't pay any attention to what the kids wear, and don't enforce the dress code as much as the other teachers. I told her that I didn't care how many OTHER people broke the rules, she would not be one of them. I earned a dirty look, but by the time we left for school, her outfit was in compliance with the current dress code. I also had to argue with my son because he wanted to wear a pair of ratty-looking cutoff jeans, which may not violate the school's dress code, but certainly violates mine. Not to mention the hugely baggy shirts he wants to wear and the fact that yesterday, he slipped by me wearing a huge shirt, which covered up the fact that he was not wearing a belt, and was therefore sagging under his shirt. Aaaaargh. The uniforms in elementary school were much easier to police. I don't believe the uniform policy will necessarily be any easier to enforce without a detailed plan of action for violators, but it will certainly be easier on us parents who do the enforcement at home.

http://www.islandpacket.com/front/story/584732.html

You would not believe how much effort, time, and stress is spent on trying to enforce the dress code. As a high school teacher, not a day goes by that I don't have to deal with this issue numerous times. I can spot the girls with the short skirts or the low cut tops. They usually just "happen" to have something else they can put on (imagine that!) or they can call their moms to bring them something else. They aren't the major problem. The sagging pants are another matter entirely! You get beligerence and major attitude. A size 32 boy in a size 42 pair of jeans! Come on! Why would you buy that stuff for your kids? All that ever gets done about it is to tell them to pull them up. Big deal! Two minutes later, if that long, they're down under their behinds again. There are just too many of them to do anything about. We have teachers who will nail a girl for the low cut tops and short skirts, while they let the sagging pants just penquin-waddle right by! I don't know if they're afraid of being called a racist or just don't want to bother. I know some are afraid it will damage their relationship with the student to stay on them about the clothes. Give me a break! Are you their friend or their teacher?! The kids know which few of us enforce the dress code and which of us don't bother, and believe me, they take advantage of it. We're told that it's the culture. Well, if that's true, it's a culture of ignorance and disrespect for themselves and those of us who have to tolerate it! The Hip-Hop and Rap artists who made this idiocy popular should be shot! Uniforms would certainly help the situation and put a stop to the girls who dress like street-walkers, but what about the boys? Unless the proposed uniforms are fitted and ordered through the school, it will never work. You'll still have the same ignorant parents who will buy pants ten sizes too big for skinny little Tyrese and Jamar or what ever their names happen to be. They just don't get it! Furthermore, failure of administrators to back up teachers by actually doing something about the dress code violators is a major contributor to the problem. Put them in a jumpsuit like the prisoners the want so much to emulate. Pull them out of class and deal with all 500 or more of them if that's what it takes. Believe me, kids who insist on dressing like thug-wanna-bes who refuse to follow the rules probably aren't contributing much to the class anyway. If you have ever seen the video that was being circulated around the district email of the sagging pants, big shirt guy with twenty or so weapons hidden in his huge clothes, you'll know why we need to demand that something be done about the uniform situation. Don't wait til next year to start it in high school. Don't even wait until September. Start tomorrow and make sure they fit!!

Really? Mr. Bennett hired someone to enforce the dress code? Hmmm...I would've thought enforcing school rules would be the responsibility of the principal and administrative staff. Maybe not, let's just create a position which is something the district has always been famous for when the mood strikes.

Board Vice Chairman Bob Arundell and the other eight board members need to be replaced. Mr. Earl Campbell looks like the only one that had any well you know what i can't say. how stupid is this. lets require 1st through 9th graders to wear uniforms but lets not make high schoolers wear them. i know this is a little off subject but why are we letting Mr. white back in the school system if he had done such a good job we should not have let him go. if he was sick of it why come back. mabe you let your friends in on the money train. all aboard

Sharkhunter, although I commend your ideas they just won't work. Here's why:

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1. There are many entrances to each school. It is impossible to post a teacher at each entrance to enforce the dress code because there aren't "extra" teachers who can do this. In the morning, teachers are preparing for their lessons and must be in their rooms as children arrive for homeroom. Although it seems like a good idea, in practice there just isn't anyone available to do it unless the school district wants to hire "door monitors" for each entrance at each school in the district. That would be about 3 people for each school at the cost of $$$$$$. There is no money for this, and I'm sure people don't want their taxes going up to cover the cost of the uniform police.

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2. You can't tell the children to "turn around" and go home to change. Once a child enters the school grounds they are not allowed to be released unless signed out by a parent/guardian.

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3. Calling parents seems like a good idea but doesn't work. Often the contact numbers are out of date or disconnected. Parents change jobs and cell phones and don't tell the school. If you can get in touch with a parent at work, they will just tell you that they can't leave. Some don't have their own transportation. Some won't even answer the phone because they already know what the school is calling about and they don't want to be bothered.

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Then what do you do with the improperly dressed student?

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Let's say that 100 kids come to school on Monday with some level of uniform violation. (More like 400 at each high school.) Some don't have the uniform on at all, some are wearing the wrong shirt, some have cargo pants, some have a hot pink t-shirt under their polo, etc. What do you do with them? Now you have 100 kids in the lunch room while the office staff tries to contact their parents. The kids are missing class. They are not learning. They are not being able to do what they are supposed to be in school for.

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Who is watching this group of 100 violators? Teachers? No, they have to teach. Office staff? No they're calling parents (and not doing what they were hired to do.) Principal/Vice Principal? They have important jobs and get paid a lot of money to do them. Principals are not babysitters.

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Now it's 10am and you still have 50 kids in the lunch room whose parents have not come in, and lunch is going to begin. Where do you move these kids to? Can't use the library or gym. Who has been watching them for the past 3 hours? But most importantly is the fact that they are NOT IN CLASS!!!!! At 2:30 it's the end of the school day and they have received NO INSTRUCTION all day! Imagine this going on each and every day in every school in the district!

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See how crazy this is?

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What actually happens is that the school just lets the violators get away with it. The teachers might say something to them such as, "Tomorrow you better not come to school in jeans," but that's it. There is no way to enforce the uniform policy. It sounds great on paper, but it just doesn't work in the real world. Eventually the uniform policy becomes a ridiculous mess at the school because there's no real way to enforce it.

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If you think I'm wrong, go visit any of the schools in the district that have uniforms anytime after the middle of October. You'll see what I'm talking about.

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