School Uniforms Prove a Tough Sell

Fifth-grader Maria Serrano said the student council at Vaughn Street School had a tough time picking colors for the uniforms that school officials and some parents wanted students to wear this year.

“We couldn’t have red because that was a gang color, and we couldn’t have blue or black because those were too,” said Maria. “I think that’s why we picked burgundy and pink, because they were the only colors left.”

Finding a safe color for school uniforms was only half the battle. There remains the unsolved problem of getting fashion-conscious youngsters to wear them, say officials at two San Fernando Valley elementary schools that are the first in the Los Angeles Unified School District to adopt a voluntary uniform program.

Parents and officials had hoped that uniforms would encourage students to develop school pride and discourage them from adopting dangerous gang fashions that can mark them as targets for retaliation.

But unlike private schools, Los Angeles public schools cannot make uniforms mandatory. So far this year, less than half the students at Vaughn Street elementary school have taken to wearing uniforms, school officials say. The school began the uniform experiment last winter.

Less than 20% of the students at Vintage Street Fundamental School in Sepulveda have been wearing their uniforms regularly since the program started this fall, Principal Barbara Gee said.

Parents and the student council at Vaughn Street selected a uniform of plaid skirts and dresses with pink blouses and matching cardigan sweaters for girls. For boys, the uniform consists of gray slacks, a button-front white shirt and burgundy sweater.

Most of the students wearing full uniforms Friday were in the third grade and younger. Some students say their parents cannot afford the $50 uniforms, and others say they do not like the style.

“Kids in the upper grades are afraid that their peer group will laugh at them,” said Vaughn principal Yvonne Chan.

Chan is hoping that the recent addition of a low-cost T-shirt emblazoned with the school name and panda mascot, for both boys and girls, will encourage more students to participate.

The school is located in a tough, largely Latino, blue-collar neighborhood in Pacoima where gangs routinely do battle.

Students such as sixth-grader Eden Ramos, 12, say they are already too cool to wear any uniform but their own. “I feel more comfortable in my own clothes, and I would get bored wearing the same clothes every day,” Eden said.

Besides, Eden said, uniforms can increase the danger of being singled out for a gang attack. In other neighborhoods, anyone wearing a Vaughn Street School T-shirt can be easily picked out as an intruder, he said. “They ask you, ‘Where you from?’ and they’re going to know,” he said.

For students attending Vintage Street elementary, a magnet school that attracts children from more affluent homes, school officials and students said the cost of uniforms is not as big a barrier as the style--similar to the Vaughn Street uniforms, but in beige and gray.

“My mom bought one for me but I’ve only worn it once,” said Sharona Benhaim, a fifth-grade student. “I like wearing my own clothes.”

Sharona’s friend, Darcy Banks, agreed. “My mom makes me wear mine every day, but I change as soon as I get home,” she said.