Aug
7
July 2009 – Dress Code Part 2
August 7, 2009 | | 2 Comments
The content of the blog this month is being written as a follow-up to the previous review of a dress code for the Milton Area School District. A committee, made up of administrators, teachers and board members, made a visit to the Mount Carmel School District to discuss the implementation of their Dress Code Policy in 2000. The meeting at the Mount Carmel School District was insightful with respect to potential pitfalls and positive outcomes of an implementation of a dress code policy.
One interesting aspect that was pointed out to the team was that Mount Carmel was visited by 15 different schools to have discussions about the Mount Carmel dress code policy, but only 4 had returned to their district and actually implemented a similar policy.
As for the positive things that were pointed out in the visit, they were as follows:
- The district saw a decrease in student discipline on the days where the dress code was implemented within the district.
- The district saw a balancing of the students between those of high economic status and those of low economic status within the school due to the commonality of attire during the course of the school day.
Some pitfalls that they identified:
- The policy needs to be under constant revision as times and fashions change.
- The policy needs to be clear in the arenas of extra-curricular events, such as trips and dances.
Upon returning to the district, the committee met together to debrief on what was noticed during the visit. Several members of the committee commented that the policy in Mount Carmel was developed due to concerns brought about by a single board member. Within the Milton Area School District, it has been a common concern from community members voicing problems to board members, to teachers talking about this issue with principals during the past several school years.
The committee decided to take the following approach with the coming of the 2009-2010 school year. The approach will be three-fold:
- The district will revisit the current district dress code at the first in-service for teachers and strongly encourage teachers to enforce this policy in the coming school year. If there are any student discipline referrals surrounding this policy, they will be closely monitored during the next school year.
- There will be an announcement made on a daily basis for teachers to take a moment to determine if there are any dress code violations that need to be reported to the office. This will allow for accountability. The committee had noted in the previous blog that several community members, as well as students, said that if the district just enforced the current policy, there would not be a need for a dress code. This would be the first approach to that endeavor.
- The committee will repost our findings on the Superintendent’s Blog so that the community is aware of the process that the committee is moving forward with in the investigation of a dress code policy by further blog postings.
For your information, a brief section of the Milton Area School District Dress Code Policy is below.
An individual’s habits of dress and personal grooming are an important part of his/her total personality and they often determine not only his/her attitude toward himself/herself, but also the way others look at him/her. These regulations will be enforced to ensure the health and safety of all students and to minimize the disruption of education within the classroom due to the potentially distracting nature of certain styles of dress.
Safe and appropriate footwear is required.
- Bare midriffs, see through blouses, low cut tops, tops that expose one shoulder, undershirts, tube tops, halter tops, and tank top style shirts with less than two-inch straps over the shoulders, are inappropriate attire and not permitted.
- No short shorts, skirts, or dresses are permitted. The length of these garments must be no higher than fingertip length with arms extended alongside of the body.
- Clothing, buttons, accessories, or other insignias deemed inappropriate are not permitted in school. These include items that are sexually suggestive, or that mock, ridicule, or demean a race, religion, or culture. Clothing items that display references to drugs, tobacco products, vulgarity, or alcoholic beverages may not be worn in school.
- Hats, headbands, and headwear are not to be worn during school hours.
- Extremely tattered or excessively long clothing is prohibited. Also prohibited are extremely baggy pants. All pants are to be worn at waist level.
- Any items worn as jewelry or clothing that could present a safety problem or are a distraction to the educational process are not allowed.
- Any item, material, jewelry, clothing, make-up, etc. that is deemed as being excessive because of its potential to create a safety problem or to be a distraction to the educational process is not permitted.
Individual classroom teachers may impose additional dress regulations as they relate to their curriculum. These regulations may be imposed to ensure health and/or safety and must have the prior approval of the principal. Such additional regulations are to be posted in the classroom and students are to be informed of these regulations.
The district is considering looking at the next step being the enforcement and the potential development of a committee of community members, parents, teachers and students, as well as the current committee, to discuss the potential development of a new dress code policy in the Milton Area School District. If you are interested in serving on that committee, please feel free to notify me, or any district administrator.
Comments
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I am glad that the dress code will be enforced more than getting uniforms. I am glad that this will be our “new” Dress code. Thanks Dr. Clark!
I think that if your going to provide us with a dress code it should be applied to everyone. The school singles out only certain people. The teachers should do there job and check each student everyday. If they don’t want to do that then they dress code shouldn’t apply at all. I feel it’s wrong singling out certain students. There is a dress code that the school is so worried about following yet all our girl sports have inappropriate clothing. If you would make your girls cheerleaders, tennis players, field hockey and others put there hands down it wouldn’t pass code. The thing about that is normal students that aren’t in sports representing the school get in trouble for dress code. Yet, students representing our school wear inappropriate clothing and othing gets done. This is wrong!