Protest at School : Who Wears Short Shorts? Students Can’t

Waving signs that said “Our Body, Our Choice--Shorts” and “Shorts--The Choice of a Hot Generation,” between 60 and 75 Parkman Junior High School students refused to attend classes Friday until they are given the right to wear shorts to school.

The students, supported by a handful of parents, spent all day in front of the Woodland Hills school chanting slogans and shouting their demands.

Three students were suspended from classes for leading the demonstration. Principal Andy Andersen said they will be reinstated Monday morning, after their parents talk to school administrators.

Comfort More Important

“They think that shorts affect our grades,” said Jennifer Ruppel, a seventh-grader who refused to attend classes. “We should be able to wear whatever we want to wear. We should be able to be comfortable.”

Many adults believe that campus battles over dress codes died a natural death decades ago, after schools learned to cope with a generation of boys with shoulder-length hair and girls in white vinyl go-go boots and miniskirts.

But a new generation that finds it acceptable for boys to sport gold studs in pierced ears and girls to wear bright multicolored hair has revived confrontations over what is and is not acceptable school attire.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has a general dress code stating that “hazardous” and “inappropriate” dress is not acceptable. But, a district spokesman said, principals can establish standards of dress for their own campuses.

Andersen will not allow boys to wear anything that could be interpreted as a “gang identifier,” including earrings, bandannas or colored shoelaces.

“This might impinge on someone’s rights, but I would rather step on someone’s toes than have a kid who innocently wore an earring shot because he was mistaken for a gang member,” Andersen said.

Andersen has also banned miniskirts, a decree that would give some members of the 1960s generation a sense of deja vu .

“Girls can wear short skirts, but not the short short ones,” he said.

But Friday’s controversy centered on shorts. Parkman students can wear knee-length shorts, now called knee-busters but known to earlier generations as “clam diggers” or “baggies.” These shorts can be worn only after two consecutive days of temperatures above 90 degrees, however.

Andersen admits that he is not an avid follower of fashion trends.

“Perhaps we weren’t wise to allow only knee-length shorts,” he said. “Members of the PTA and the Advisory Council now tell me that they are very difficult to purchase and very expensive. Maybe we should allow shorts that are somewhat higher.”