High Life A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : All Dressed Up (Alike) : Some Pros (Cost, Equality) and a Con (Clones?) of School Uniforms

“School’s for learnin’, not a fashion show.”

So say DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince in last year’s hit rap song, “Parents Just Don’t Understand.”

Ah, but some parents do understand. And so do some educators, as the trend toward uniforms in public schools has spread in the past two years.

By tradition, most parochial and some private schools have mandated uniforms to ensure neat, well-groomed students who pay attention in class and do not feel compelled to outdo their classmates’ wardrobes or look down on others for what they do or do not wear.

Now, many public schools across the nation are following suit and are turning to voluntary uniforms, an idea that parents and many students have praised. Uniforms have caught on at elementary schools in Florida, Washington and Maryland.

New Orleans is experimenting this year with uniforms at one high school, where student resistance to the idea is likely to be greater than in the lower grades.

Meanwhile, other parents and school districts in Texas, Illinois, New York, Virginia and Tennessee are examining the concept.

The reason? Parents and educators are tired of clothes-obsessed students centering their lives around fads and fashions instead of studies.

At most of Orange County’s Catholic high schools, students form a uniformed sea of plain skirts, button-down shirts and school sweaters devoid of any logos save the school’s name. The uniforms offer a mixed bag of benefits and drawbacks, with the widest diversity of opinion held by the students who must wear them.

On a normal school day, Trevor Durham, an 18-year-old senior at St. Margaret High School in San Juan Capistrano, shows up for class in tan pants, a red, white or blue shirt and, if it is cold, a St. Margaret sweater. No Nike Air Jordans or Adidas for him--the school requires black or tan “polishable” shoes for boys.

“They argue whether or not to go with a uniform every year,” Durham said. “It all comes down to tradition, but tradition is meant to be changed, too. If it were my way, I’d go for free dress. I don’t think it matters if you wear a uniform or not.”

But many Orange County students who are required to wear school uniforms are grateful for the dictated fashions.

Nancy Ko, 17, a senior at Cornelia Connelly, an all-girls’ high school in Anaheim, has seen life on both sides of the fashion fence. As a freshman, she attended Loara, a public high school in the same city.

Her clothing options this winter are limited to a uniform plaid skirt, navy or white sweater and white shirt. Though some may find the style limited, Nancy said, “I like it a lot better. I used to spend half an hour trying to decide what to wear each day.”

Katie Strauss, 17, a junior at St. Margaret, also favors uniforms. Hers is a khaki skirt matched with a choice of three colors of tops.

“I don’t have time to worry about what to wear in the morning, and it’s really nice just to be able to put on the uniform,” she said. “A lot of people really don’t like them, but I do.”

Katie attended a public elementary school and started her freshman year at Corona del Mar High. While she would not recommend uniforms for public-school students, she said, there should be a dress code prohibiting girls from wearing halter tops, see-through shirts and other revealing apparel.

Katie praised her school’s uniform policy: “It puts kids on the same level. . . . You’re all the same.”

This sort of social leveling is exactly why Kristen Sandifer, a 17-year-old senior at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, opposes uniforms.

“They say we should like someone for who they are,” Kristen said, “but with a uniform, they’re hidden. It takes away your individuality.”

She concedes that “you don’t have to sit in front of your closet and think about what to wear. I still go out and buy clothes, though. It just makes you want to have a few nice outfits.”

Kristen’s mother, Nikki, who also attended private schools requiring uniforms, is enthusiastic about Mater Dei’s dress code. While she concedes that she would not call the uniforms attractive, she said the students wearing them look “very well-groomed and neat.”

She doesn’t think the idea would ever be accepted by the state’s public schools. “I think people out here tend to be more into fads and more unique and proud of it. Californians tend to be more willing to be different.”

Nikki Sandifer likes her daughter’s simplified wardrobe for another reason; one that has made uniforms attractive to many parents: cost. Since uniforms can be worn year after year, she pays less than $100 a year for Kristen’s school clothes.

Kathy Owens, whose daughter, Genny, is a senior at Mater Dei, said of uniforms: “I think they’re great. I think it gives them a certain pride in their school. I have one (child) in public school and one in private, and I spend more (for clothes) on the one in public school.”

While uniforms may be more economical, practical and egalitarian, many students argue that they are just plain ugly.

Gregg Barry, 17, is Mater Dei’s student body president. He confessed that people often laugh at his unfashionable outfits while he’s on his way home from school.

“Guys wear imitation Izod shirts with bell-bottom pants,” said Barry, commenting on Mater Dei’s uniforms. “And girls wear cardboard-collar shirts and skirts made from old Irish bagpipes.”

Added Kristen Sandifer: “The uniform doesn’t do much for the guys. I always feel fat in mine.”

Durham agreed that he found the St. Margaret uniform unbecoming on girls: “It makes them all look the same. It makes them all seem plainer.”

For some students garbed in a school’s prescribed fashions, the choices are broad enough to allow for personal taste.

Travis Moody, a 14-year-old freshman at Santa Margarita High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, may not be able to wear jeans and suede on campus, but her closet is filled with school clothes.

She has a choice of six skirts, two pairs of corduroy slacks (though hardly anyone wears them, she said), three colors of walking shorts, three colors of Oxford blouses and four colors of polo shirts. The school also allows uniformed sweaters and vests, which come in 28 different styles and colors.

This relative freedom of dress, when compared to other private schools, appears to soften the blow of wearing a uniform.

“It’s really not that bad,” Travis Moody said. “It doesn’t bother most of the people at all.”

Of the wealth of choices, Diane Klitz, uniform coordinator at Santa Margarita, said: “We realize that there are different types of people who like to wear different types of clothing.”

Servite, an all-boys’ high school in Anaheim, has an even more liberal dress code in force. It is the only Catholic high school in the county that doesn’t require a uniform.

Students there can wear dress or corduroy slacks, shirts that have wing collars and are tucked into the pants and leather--or imitation leather--shoes. But no clothing can display any logos or advertisements.

The idea is to keep the school conservative-looking without imposing a uniform.

“A student’s dress reflects his approach to studies, the amount of respect he holds for the members of the faculty and staff, and his behavior as it affects other students,” reads the Servite dress code philosophy. The dress code, it goes on to state, “is not seen as an infringement of students’ right of free expression, since there are many off-campus hours during which any student may dress as he chooses.”

“Basically, you can wear whatever you want. It just has to be tucked in and neat,” said Oscar Valadez, a 17-year-old Servite senior. “There are some guys who want to wear T-shirts and jeans to school, but it will never happen.

“At Servite, there’s no one to dress for anyway.”