Anti-Gang Dress Code Is Criticized as Unfair : Schools: Moorpark High School is accused of discrimination. The board will review the policy.

A Moorpark High School dress code that bans black, red and navy blue hats and other attire associated with gangs will be reviewed by the school board Tuesday after complaints that it is a discriminatory policy aimed primarily at Latino students.

Principal Cary Dritz said the dress code was implemented at the beginning of the semester to ensure the safety of the school’s 1,050 students and to discourage any potential gang activity.

But Dritz has come under fire from some parents, students and school board members who say the policy has not been fairly enforced.

“The issue is not the dress code, but that it has to be fairly applied,” said school board member Pam Castro. Some Latino students told her that they were being singled out for violating the code, she said.

“The Latinos feel they are being discriminated against,” Castro said. “This is not something that the school board wants to portray. We’re only going to compound the problem if we do something unfairly or unequally.”

“I’ve been in this business a long time. I’m not here to violate students’ rights,” Dritz said. “I’m here to protect their rights. We instituted the dress code in the interest of student safety.”

Dritz said he decided to implement the new dress code after consulting with faculty, parents and law enforcement officials about what he perceived as a growing gang problem in the city.

One symptom of the problem, he said, was a drive-by shooting at a Moorpark shopping center last year. Five youths who had gathered in front of the center after a high school football game were wounded when a shotgun was fired from a passing car.

The shooting was not believed to be related to the clothing the students were wearing, authorities said. But Dritz said that after the incident he talked with the local Parent Teachers Assn. and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees Moorpark, about what could be done to discourage gang activity. Sheriff’s officials recommended a “zero tolerance” dress code, which the school decided to implement this year.

The dress code prohibits students from wearing black, red and navy blue hats and bandannas and Los Angeles Raiders jackets and T-shirts.

Dritz said there were no complaints about the policy from students or parents until a recent newspaper article reported that he had confiscated a number of black hats from students attending a high school football game. He said he has since gotten calls from several parents, some in favor of the policy and some against it.

Castro suggested that instead of banning hats of particular colors, all hats should be banned.

“I don’t think that a teacher should have to worry about whether they are being discriminatory because they missed someone wearing a black hat.”

Students at Moorpark High are split on whether the school’s dress code policy should remain as it is or be changed.

“I’m in favor of the dress code,” said student Ed Dagnan, 14. “I like it. They don’t allow Raiders clothes or anything, which is great. I hate the Raiders.”

Ed said there is no gang problem at the school, but the dress code would help discourage gang activity in the future.

Student Jeff Carifi, 17, disagreed.

“Just because you wear a hat doesn’t mean you’re in a gang,” he said.

Jeff said he likes the Raiders and would like to be able to wear clothes with the football team’s insignia.

“The one year they do good, you can’t wear their stuff,” he said.

Board member Cynthia Hubbard agreed with Castro that the dress code should be changed to ban all hats.

“It needs work, I feel,” Hubbard said, adding that she will bring the issue up at the school board meeting on Tuesday. “I think they should ban all headgear instead of certain colors.”

Dritz said that the policy is not discriminatory.

“We have been enforcing the policy on a consistent basis,” he said.

“I don’t see a problem, but the school board is my boss, and I will do whatever they want. Whatever is best for the kids is what I want.”

Ventura High School prohibits students from wearing T-shirts or caps with gang slogans, and Oxnard High bans all bandannas and baseball caps, with the exception of the official school cap. Bob Fisher, principal at Santa Paula High School, said the school is considering implementing similar restrictions.