Are School Dress Codes A Violation Of Civil Liberties?
I found this old article from MTV.com that talks about Dress codes for schools, and thought it was interesting even though it might not be relevant to the context in which we are talking about it. Unless its a private school that makes you wear uniforms and won't accept you as a student if you dont wear the required clothes. Let me know whether you think private schools of even public schools for that matter should have a dress code? and whether it is a violation of our civil liberties? Here are some direct quotes from the article as well as the original article.
Does a dress code help to eliminate gang activity and make schools safer, or is this just an example of schools trying to eliminate individuality?
This decentralization of policy, and the vagueness of the relationship between a wardrobe and student safety, has resulted in the wide range of dress codes in American schools. Perhaps not surprisingly, the people most effected "students" are often divided on the issue as well, as exemplified by the opinions of two people who wrote to MTV News regarding the Wichita story.
"Racial and religiously offensive clothing should be banned. That is about as far as it should go," said Jason Paar, a 17-year-old from Olean, New York. "If you discriminate against a type of preference, you are discriminating against the student. That should never happen."
"Bitch all you want, demand that a public school not have dress-code policies, or that this is a violation of our civil liberties," said Lara Niedzwiedzki, a 21-year-old Chicagoan. "This principal is doing nothing wrong by setting a dress code in place. Don't we have bigger problems to worry about?"
posted by Jeremy Byers at
7:07 PM
2 Comments:
I have a lot to say about dress codes, none of which is any way related to employment law. I went to a private school for 18 years and wore the same 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts the whole time (ok, well the sizes changed, but not much else). I loved uniforms, and I never felt like my "civil liberties" were being threatened in any way. If anything, they meant that I got to sleep in 15 minutes longer because I didn't have to decide what to wear. I'm skeptical that uniforms really do much of anything - it's not like making everyone wear similar clothes will keep middle and high schoolers from figuring out who the "cool kids" or the "nerds" are - cliques form and viscous social actions go on just the same. So I believe that private schools definitely have the right to have a dress code (I mean, you don't have to go there if you don't want to) and that if public schools honestly think that dresscodes help, then by all means have them go for it. I think that there are a lot more pressing matters to be concerned with than what people wear.
I have seen both scenarios, of private and public schools, dress codes and not. I went to a public high school, and every year the guidelines on what sort of dress was acceptable became more stringent. It started out as restrictions on how you could wear your clothes (i.e. all hats pointed forward, all pants above the waist, all skirts must extend below a certain point, etc), but then a trend towards what you could wear became apparent, such as certain phrases on clothing being banned, certain colors associated with "gangs" being banned, and things like that. To be honest, one of the (lesser) reasons that I chose to attend a public high school was because I was sick of wearing a uniform at private junior high, and my "rights" were still infringed upon in the public school. I agree that private schools should be allowed to require whatever type of dress they want, because, as Mel pointed out, a student can choose not to attend that school. I also believe that some of the steps taken in public schools to restrict dress are for the best also. The restrictions in my high school were implemented continuously after situations arose that warranted a change in policy, and looking back on the experience I am glad that the faculty took steps to reverse the negative spiral that students' dress in my school was heading down and the actions that resulted from that spiral. I don't think that individuality comes into play at all, instead, school's generally make the decisions to restrict free dress on the basis of safety. We extend our civil liberties as far as we can, but there are circumstances that require them to be infringed upon, because stationing a few police officers around a school may not be enough. I'm pretty sure the person who complains about freedom of expression through his clothing would rather sacrifice this liberty in exchange for keeping his life and avoiding potential violence.
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