Principal Defends Campus No-Hat Policy : Education: Santa Monica High’s Sylvia Rousseau says safety issues supersede free-speech considerations.

Some students and civil rights advocates at Santa Monica High School are riled up over principal Sylvia Rousseau’s new no-hats policy, making her first public move since taking over from Bernard (Nardy) Samuels on July 1 a controversial one.

The ban is part of an effort to stem gang violence at the 2,500-student school.

It is not all that radical, given that most high schools in the Los Angeles area outlawed hats and other gang-associated garb in recent years. But Santa Monica High is different, a last bastion, some say, of individuality, and a few students have criticized the loss of freedom-of-hat as a first step in thought control.

Regardless, the ban is in character for Rousseau, a moving force in the turnaround of George Washington Prep in South Los Angeles, where she was assistant principal for five years. She has vowed to get similar results at her new Westside post, explaining, “I’ve come to Santa Monizca High, I think, at the request and mandate of a board and community to create the kind of school where the community and students can feel pride. We don’t always agree on what that is, but there are some common areas: a safe campus and a campus whose programs and curriculum are designed to promote all children’s progress and success, empowering them to make a contribution to society.”

A hatless campus is only the first of many changes envisioned by Rousseau, who says she can’t fathom the emphasis some are placing on the hat-as-symbol, rather than on the substance of what she is trying to accomplish.

“We shouldn’t get caught in the quagmire of hats,” she said. “The campus environment, physical or social, has to do with relationships between students, teachers, the community, relationships that bespeak a respect for each other in the midst of diversity. . . . We have work to do on this campus.”

Santa Monica High is 46% Anglo, 32% Latino, 10% black and 10% Asian, and draws both middle-class and low-income students.

As for hats, “They are a major means by which students communicate gang affiliation or messages that precipitate conflict,” she says. “Therefore one way to eliminate, to reduce, the tension and a known source of trouble is to remove the hats.”

Rousseau is well aware that any such dictate can be seen as an infringement on one’s rights, on freedom of expression.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board member Michael Hill has voiced opposition to the policy, and student school board representative Jamil Jaffer opined after a recent community meeting where the rule was announced that “this is starting to get close to infringing on our Constitutional rights. . . . (When) you start telling people what to wear, you might as well start telling them what to think and what to say.”

A few parents and community members also have spoken out against the hat policy at meetings or telephoned Rousseau to complain. But in defending her decision, Rousseau says, “In any society, if you want some degree of accord and mutual respect, people have to give up certain individual rights to promote the welfare of the many. Since we know that hats are a source of tension and conflict and a vehicle for turf-claiming and rivalry, we’ve made a simple request that is harmful to none and beneficial to all.”

She said she wants to create “a safe haven, where no one has a need to be macho or defensive. . . . If students can’t concentrate on this campus, then where? If they can’t succeed here, where will they? Their options will be limited largely to perpetuating the cycle of violence. These are heavy issues, not just about wearing a hat.”

Rousseau has scheduled a meeting with student leaders next week, when the new policy on hats will be further discussed.

Parents and the majority of the school board are solidly behind Rousseau on hats and whatever else she tries, saying the school’s problems have too long been hidden and ignored.

“I would have never considered a dress code when I first came on the school board 13 years ago,” said board member Mary Kay Kamath. “I feel very strongly about civil liberties issues, but I think we are in a different era now, and the problem is one of making our campuses safe and perceived as safe. It is important for us to try to work together with a new principal and let her try out this new policy.”

Kamath said she is unaware of any problems or incidents directly linked to how a student was dressed, but said “some can unknowingly place themselves or others at risk . . . (and) we don’t want to take that chance. I find this a very difficult issue, but we are on the same side. She can do whatever she wants so long as it’s in line with school district policy. And her new policy certainly is.”

Written district dress code calls for students to arrive with “proper attention having been given to personal cleanliness or neatness of dress,” but allows any clothing that is not deemed “obscene, libelous or slanderous,” does not disrupt the classroom, and does not advocate illegal activity (including gangs).

The code adds that “no restrictions on freedom of dress and adornment shall be imposed by the District which may violate a student’s civil rights, which imposes particular codes of morality or religious tenets, (or) which attempts to dictate style or taste. . . .” Santa Monica’s middle schools and Malibu High School already ban hats.

Board president Pamela Brady noted that although board members may express opinions, they have no authority to set rules for individual schools. “Our job is to set district policy and hire a superintendent. Rousseau is absolutely in alignment with board policy, and I support her 100%.”

She said that only board member Hill, who could not be reached for comment, has voiced continuing concern about putting a rule in place for all because of a few. He debated the issue with Rousseau last week. She said she was not dissuaded.

Board member Peggy Lyons remembers long interviews with Rousseau during the principal-selection process: “She didn’t say specifically what she would do, but she was given a mandate to change the environment at that school--the graffiti, no one in class on time or not in school at all, a couple of gang incidents, filthy bathrooms. We asked her to make all that different, but it is not for the board to dictate to her how.”

Rousseau said a hatless campus is not the only thing that will be different about Santa Monica High when it reopens next month. Portable radio-cassette players will also be banned, and:

* Parents, students and community volunteers will join 50 Pepperdine students for a cleanup day at the school on Sept. 11, part of an effort to improve the physical environment. They will paint out graffiti and spruce up the campus. Several renovation and expansion projects are already under way, financed by a bond issue passed by Santa Monica voters in 1990.

* Parents will be on campus--and in the bathrooms--to help supervise during peak hours, and administrators will be more visible at dismissal time, not relying entirely on the half-dozen security guards. “The degree to which we have caring, responsible adults present will be a deterrent to inappropriate behavior,” Rousseau said. “All this will provide a jump-start to creating a safe campus.”

* A variety of activities will be offered, especially during noontime, so that student free time does not “degenerate into destructive behavior,” Rousseau said. One will be a pep club to support athletic teams and accompany them when they compete at other schools.

* Community service projects will use Santa Monica High students, who Rousseau said “need to find the joy that comes from doing for other people.”

* A new curriculum will be designed, incorporating area businesses and nearby colleges and universities, to ensure that Santa Monica is preparing its graduates “for what the 21st Century will demand,” Rousseau said.