Dress Code Dispute Put on Hold for Holidays

Student indignation over a new dress code at Peary Junior High School in Gardena, which was to be capped with a sit-in by protesters last Friday, was defused when Principal Alvin L. Hayes Sr. offered to discuss the new standards with the students after the winter holidays.

A group of about 20 students had planned the sit-in to protest the code on the last day before winter break, but classmates failed to join them in a walkout after roll call.

“I think they were afraid,” said Michele Martinez, 13, who waited with other students for more than an hour for their classmates to join them. “There were police everywhere.”

Two unmarked Gardena police cars and four patrol cars were sent to the campus after school security officials requested backup, said Lt. David Morgan of the Gardena Police Department.

The protests were prompted by a revised dress code imposed by the school’s shared-decision-making council--a group of parents, teachers, community members, the principal and one student.

Nearly 180 students walked out Dec. 12, and about 15 students walked out the following day, Hayes said. Students said more protesters scaled fences to leave campus on both days.

The dress code, which went into effect Dec. 11, prohibits such clothing as tops that expose bare midriffs, garments printed with suggestive language and items associated with gangs, including hats, hair nets, bandannas and gloves.

Students objected most vehemently to restrictions banning a single earring, which school officials said is sometimes a symbol of gang affiliation, and clothing with holes, including blue jeans with tears.