Schools Have to Take Uniform Approach : Burbank Superintendent’s Ban on Baggy Gang Attire Could Be Counterproductive

Burbank School Supt. Arthur Pierce has proposed a ban on so-called gang-related clothing such as unusually baggy pants. By so doing, Pierce wants the Burbank Board of Education to take advantage of a new state law that allows school systems to impose anti-gang dress codes throughout a district.

The state Education Code prevents public schools from requiring the use of school uniforms.

But Gov. Pete Wilson recently signed a bill that gives school districts the authority to ban gang-related clothing and encourages districts to adopt dress codes aimed at minimizing gang influence.

Under the Burbank superintendent’s plan, students could be suspended or expelled for defying the dress code. Pierce also would be allowed to alter the policy after consulting with other school officials as new trends in gang-clothing emerge. Part of the goal, say district officials, is to protect students who may become accidental targets of gang violence.

But Pierce’s proposal may be unnecessary, and counterproductive. Overly broad or districtwide bans are not the best way to proceed here. Such matters are more properly part of the decision-making that ought to be made by individual schools, parents and their communities on a case-by-case basis.

Already, John Burroughs High School in Burbank, for example, has banned students from wearing gang-associated clothing, as has Burbank High School in the matter of wearing baggy pants below the natural waistline.

Three San Fernando Valley elementary schools, for example, have decided on voluntary school uniform programs that help parents and students avoid the anxieties and prices of current fashions. The uniforms are also intended to discourage one of the more obvious ways in which street gangs intrude upon the school day. Many other campuses throughout the Los Angeles area have done the same thing.

These approaches strike a better balance between individual tastes and the need for order in the schools.