High Life / A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : New Dress Code Adopted

The Santa Ana Unified School District board has adopted a dress code that prohibits the district’s 47,700 students from wearing gang-related attire.

Board members, with little discussion at their meeting last week, unanimously approved the regulations, which set a districtwide minimum standard of dress. Under them, principals may ban anything they believe to be associated with gang membership, which could include sports-team jackets, jewelry, clothing of a certain color, or emblems unaffiliated with the school or activities related to it.

Principals may also prohibit attire containing depictions of use of alcohol, drugs or other controlled substances, and also offensive sexual, ethnic or racial language or symbols.

Other districts, among them Garden Grove Unified, Tustin Unified and Orange Unified, have recently adopted similar regulations prohibiting gang-related clothing, and many schools have done so on their own.

Trustee Richard C. Hernandez praised the new guidelines, particularly the language that allows principals to define what constitutes “gang attire” and enables them to keep up with rapidly changing clothing trends.

--JON NALICK

Debbie Wing, a recent Tustin High graduate, won an all-expenses paid trip to Sacramento to attend the California Federation of Republican Women Advocacy Workshop. She won an essay contest entitled, “What Can I do as an American Citizen to Make My Country a Better Place?”

The contest, sponsored by the Orange County Federation of Republican Women, was for junior and senior girls interested in government and politics.

Wing will receive a tour of the capitol and opportunities to meet area representatives, attend committee hearings and see the legislature in session.