School Uniforms

In the past when you thought about school uniforms you thought about private or parochial schools, well that is not the case today. School uniforms policies have become increasingly more popular among public school districts. One reason for them instituting uniform policies is the potential it has to reduce violent acts in the school. Findings from studies have indicated that there may be a relationship between school uniform policies and a drop in violent acts committed in schools.

In recent years we have heard about the following, in Detroit a 15 year-old boy was shot for a pair of $86 basketball shoes. In Fort Lauderdale, a 15 year-old student was robbed of his jewelry. In Oxon Hill, MD, a 17 year-old honor student was killed at a bus stop, caught in the cross fire during the robbery of another student’s designer jacket.(1) Not only has stylish clothing of today cost parents a lot of money, it is now starting to cost them their children. Former President Bill Clinton went so far as to say in a State of the Union address that public schools should be allowed to require uniforms if it would mean “teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets.”(1) President Clinton even went as far as to have The Education Secretary, Richard Riley, distribute a guide that takes schools step-by-step on how to set up a uniform policy on a voluntary basis. Dr. Reginald Wilson, senior scholar at the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C. said that “uniforms would help discourage violence because students won’t have a need to fight over who looks better or want to cause harm in an attempt to take another student’s trendy clothes.” From the surveys that I’ve looked at, I am inclined to believe that wearing uniforms make quite a bit of difference in how people behave. I’ve read that violence has gone down in schools with dress codes and have been impressed by the difference.”(1) As the years have gone by the prices of clothing have gone up so much that some families are unable to buy the trendy cloths for their children. Some say that these children get jealous of the children who are able to wear the latest fashion. This jealousy in turn sometimes results in the above incidents. With the use of uniforms, children and faculty, for that matter, will not be aware of the social and economic status to which a student belongs. Quentin Lawson, who is the executive director of the National Alliance of Black School Educators in Washington, D.C., believes uniforms could help curb violence. He said “I certainly think it will help. Having uniforms will reduce the financial burden on parents, it will eliminate dress competition and it will reduce the number of instances of steeling of having clothing stolen.”(1) Children have been violently injured and sometimes murdered for designer clothes, sneakers, and professional sport-team apparel. Others say that requiring students to wear uniforms may limit these incidents and give them the feeling that they are on the same team. The use of uniforms also will help prevent gang members from wearing their respective colors and other gang related insignias. One of the significance of having the children wear uniforms is that they will not become easy targets of intentional or unintentional acts of violence because they were wearing a certain color. It could also be suggested that since all children are wearing the same clothes to school they can put more focus on what they are learning and not what are they going to wear tomorrow. Thriftone V. Jones, president of the D.C. Congress of Parents and Teachers said, “In today’s world clothes cause students to become envious if they see a peer wearing fancy or expensive designer clothing which leads to violence in some instances.” He says “uniforms would foster positive results because if everyone is dressed the same, there is not a reason to envy another.”(1)

Long Beach Unified School District in Long Beach, CA was the first urban school district in the United States to require school uniforms for all students, kindergarten through eighth grade. Since the policy was imposed in 1994, district officials have found that violent acts in the schools have dropped dramatically. In the first year over all school crime dropped 36%, sex offenses 74%, physical altercations 51%, weapon offenses 50%, assault and battery offenses 34%, school suspensions 32%, and vandalism 18%.(2)

Schools in other states have followed this example. In 1998 13 states (California, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas,