LA HABRA : Schools’ Anti-Gang Dress Code Changed

Toughening its dress code in response to changing gang styles, the La Habra City School District has banned plain white T-shirts and pants slit up the sides.

Officials at the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade district tightened the dress code to discourage gang activity and promote school safety. Despite their age, more and more students are donning the clothing flaunted by gang members and graffiti vandals, who are known as taggers, officials said.

“The tagger influence is real strong and we just want to combat that influence,” Washington Middle School Principal Gary Mantey said. “It’s a safety issue because even though many of the kids are not involved in gangs, they become targets of gangbangers for looking like them.”

Fourteen-year-old Steven Sanchez agreed.

“I think (the new dress code requirements) are great because I don’t want people who go to our school to get killed because of wearing those clothes,” the eighth-grader said.

Parents were sent details of the additional restrictions in letters and no one has complained, principals said. White T-shirts may not be worn unless they have pockets or “tasteful” logos on them.

On an average day, about two or three students are told to change clothes, Mantey said. The school provides “appropriate” clothing for those who violate the dress codes, and if they are told five times to change they can be suspended, something that hasn’t happened this year.

The additional restrictions were needed because taggers and gang members change clothing styles constantly, Asst. Superintendent Ruth Fehr said.

The existing dress code, which was adopted three years ago, bans oversized buttoned shirts, baggy pants, oversized T-shirts, net shirts, bandannas, hair nets, gloves, biker wallets, gang tattoos, Doc Martin or steel-toe military-type combat boots and other attire that police have identified as being related to gang activity.

Almost all schools in the county have dress codes that restrict clothing associated with gangs.

La Habra’s school district goes one step further with a voluntary uniform for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. It calls for white shirts and navy pants or skirts. Implemented last year, the code was a first for a county public school district.

About 40% of the students follow the uniform code, officials said. School districts in Brea, Santa Ana, Fullerton and Huntington Beach also encourage uniforms.