Wear and Tear : Proposal Mandating School Uniforms Causes Split Among Parents, Educators

Resurrecting a controversy left for dead two years ago, a group of PTA parents and officials at Balboa Middle School is floating a proposal to outfit students in uniforms when school starts next year.

Already, the idea is tearing open the same emotional divisions among parents, educators and students at Balboa that have marked the issue whenever it has popped up in Ventura schools.

And while parents at the east Ventura school are being told they will have the final say, some school administrators have followed the lead of a small group of PTA officers in promoting the idea.

The arguments in favor of uniforms are that they would boost academic performance and put an end to Balboa’s ongoing struggle over enforcing an existing dress code that bans bare midriffs, baggy clothing and a variety of other fashion choices.

Specifics of the proposal are still being hammered out. But even now, people are taking sides.

“We think it’s an invasion of our rights,” said Beth McGrath, at the campus last week to pick up her sixth-grader, Patrick. “They want to make little robots out of everyone, they want everyone to look the same. I’ll fight it if they want to do something like that here.”

But Valerie Eybsen, who has a set of twins in eighth grade at Balboa, said she favors the matching garb.

“I think it would solve a lot of problems, and it would save me money if they could all wear the same thing,” she said. “I realize it’s going to take away some individuality, but when they get home they can wear anything they want.”

Walk the halls of Balboa, however, and the range of opinion becomes less fractured. Students overwhelmingly oppose any move toward uniforms. They talk of a generation gap, and of parents and teachers who just don’t understand that how they dress is part of who they are.

“We need to have the freedom to express ourselves,” said eighth-grader Lara Dean, 13. “They are just being really stupid about the dress code. I wouldn’t wear a uniform no matter what they told me.”

Added 14-year-old Alan Pena: “Parents are just going to turn it down like they did last time. It’s not going to get very far.”

Indeed, the last time a uniform policy was proposed for Ventura schools, it met a crush of opposition. That was two years ago, and Supt. Joseph Spirito was spearheading a pro-uniform campaign, eventually declared dead for lack of parental support.

Emboldened by the resurrection of the issue at Balboa, however, Spirito said he plans to revisit the uniform idea next month with the principals of all the other schools in the city to see if there is more interest now.

“To be very honest with you, it went over like a lead balloon,” Spirito said of the initial push. “But maybe now with Balboa looking at it, other schools might want to look at it again. I think it’s best not to force it down anyone’s throat, but if Balboa is successful maybe other schools will want to follow that.”

At Balboa, parents and others on both sides of the issue agree it’s going to be a tough sell.

PTA leaders say they don’t remember exactly who raised the uniform issue, but it came up at a meeting of the group’s executive board before the school year started.

At that August meeting, some PTA leaders expressed concern about lax enforcement of the school’s dress code and urged administrators to crack down on violators and measure support for school uniforms at the sprawling east end campus.

Momentum built from there, with school officials responding to the PTA leadership by stepping up enforcement and researching the pros and cons of a uniform policy.

School officials have scheduled a Nov. 21 public forum to discuss the proposal and other matters related to the dress code and educational goals. And they plan to poll every parent on the issue, perhaps as soon as December.

Officials say they would need overwhelming support--75% of parents or more--to mandate school uniforms next year.

“The key is not what the teachers think and it’s not what the kids think; it’s what the parents think,” school counselor Cheryl Meyers said. “You want to give them as much information as possible on why we’re thinking of moving in that direction. But if it comes back and the message is clear they like it the way it is, then we keep it the way it is.”

In the past, the message has been crystal clear in Ventura and much of the rest of the county.

While a new state law permits schools to require uniforms, only about a half dozen Ventura County schools have adopted such policies in an effort to encourage students to focus more on studies and less on fashion.

Garden Grove Elementary School in Simi Valley was the first, enacting a voluntary policy in 1994. And at the start of this school year, E.O. Green Junior High in Port Hueneme became the latest to embrace a uniform dress code.

In the Ventura Unified School District, Spirito first proposed school uniforms at elementary schools in the spring of 1994. The idea was dropped at the start of the next school year after informal surveys showed lackluster support among parents at all but three of the district’s elementary schools.

Undaunted, Spirito shifted focus to Ventura’s four middle schools. But that idea was scrapped early last year after principals made clear that uniforms were not a priority with parents.

At Balboa, which with 1,230 students is the district’s largest middle school, many parents do not believe there has been much movement from that position.

“It shouldn’t be this much of an issue. I thought we got over this,” said Kathy Roche, whose daughter, Alysha, is in the eighth grade at Balboa. “I don’t think parents have changed their minds. We complain that kids aren’t learning anything, that they graduate high school and are still illiterate, but yet we’re worried about their clothes.”

Roche said she is also concerned about the apparent secrecy surrounding the uniform issue at Balboa. She learned about the proposal through her daughter, who heard about it through friends.

She was the only parent to speak earlier this month on the issue in front of the school site council, Balboa’s governing board of five parents, five educators and two students.

The site council, which also raised concerns about the dress code earlier this month, will review the survey results early next year. Principal Helena Reaves, a member of the council, said the panel has legal authority to dictate school policy and could unilaterally mandate school uniforms regardless of what the surveys say, but she said that is highly unlikely.

“We want to know how the parents feel about this issue,” Reaves said. “Our goal is not to divide, but to come together as a community and reach consensus on this issue so we can focus on academic goals.”

But Roche and other parents fear that they are being excluded from the process.

“It seems like a minority of people have decided that they want to push this issue,” Roche said. “I’m worried about education. To me that’s the issue. I’d rather fight my kids on the big issues. And to me, hair and clothes aren’t big issues.”

PTA leaders and school officials maintain that they have not been trying to hide the issue from parents. Rather, they say they have been trying to gather as much information as possible so they can make a balanced presentation when the time is right.

“You have to get things together first; you just can’t shoot from the hip,” said Cheryl Crone, an Oxnard resident who serves as president of Balboa’s PTA. “We just had some research to do and we wanted to come prepared.”

Crone, who has an eighth-grader at the school, supports school uniforms. Although she used to live in east Ventura, she moved to Oxnard in June 1993, but won permission from the school district and the principal to keep her daughter at Balboa until she graduates.

“We’re not forcing anything on our parents,” Crone said. “We want to hear from all of them so they can help us determine if uniforms would be a good way to go for our school.”

If parents decide they don’t want uniforms, Balboa officials still hope to receive input and direction on the school’s dress code.

Balboa’s policy is fairly clear. Clothing must be neat, clean and untorn. Excessively loose or tight clothing is prohibited, as are steel-toed shoes, studded accessories and other items that are considered safety hazards.

Dresses and skirts must be at least mid-thigh, and shorts must be hemmed with at least a 6-inch inseam. Pants may not be worn below the top of the hip and must stay up without the help of a belt.

The dress code is included in a handbook that students and parents are required to read and sign at the start of each year, indicating they understand the rules and will obey.

Nevertheless, since staff members began cracking down on dress code violations last month, about 200 students have been sent to the office and ordered to change their clothes. Officials keep a supply of shorts and T-shirts handy for such occasions.

Reaves said there were probably about 50 dress code violations during the same period last year. The increase this year is due in part to changing styles, Reaves said, as short shorts and crop tops have become the norm for girls. But she said it is also due to stepped-up enforcement of the dress code as a result of pressure by the PTA and the school site council.

“I value our freedom of expression, but I also see that the time we have to spend on the dress code is taking away from the essential skills our kids are going to need to compete in the world,” she said.

“I would like the community to come up with what is an acceptable dress code,” she continued. “If you don’t want uniforms then what do we do? I don’t know if uniforms are the answer, but I’m willing to give it a try and see what they would do for our school.”

That view, however, is not shared by the principals at Ventura’s three other middle schools--Anacapa, Cabrillo and De Anza. Those principals say they are not interested in pursuing uniform policies at this time.

They say that under some circumstances--if there were big problems with gang attire, for example--they would favor school uniforms. But unless uniforms were mandatory at all middle schools, the principals say, such a policy would not be effective.

Moreover, they report that beefed-up dress codes at their campuses have met with good success and that they really don’t have enough fashion problems to justify full-blown uniform policies.

“I don’t see it as being a real crucial issue where we would need to do it at this point in time,” said David Myers, principal at De Anza Middle School. “I think we’ve got enough things to deal with. I would rather spend my time hassling kids about doing their homework and paying attention in class rather than getting into a debate about pant size.”

Added Anacapa Principal Mike Johnson: “If you’re going to go through all that, you better have a real strong reason. We don’t have any serious problems on this campus, so I’m not sure that battle is worth fighting.”

At Balboa, some parents are asking that same question. Recognizing that the issue plucks deep emotional chords, that it is an issue that in the past has divided campuses and pitted parent against parent, they question the wisdom of raising the uniform proposal when there are relatively few problems at the school.

Even the PTA’s top leadership is divided.

“I really do believe this will fracture the school over a seemingly trivial thing,” said PTA secretary Luann LaBare, who has two boys at Balboa. “Until they can show me we have all these horrible problems, I don’t see the need for it. It’s a pain to enforce the dress code and the easy way out is you make them all wear white shirts and blue pants. Well, I’m not an advocate for taking the easy way out.”

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FYI

Balboa Middle School will host a public forum Nov. 21 to discuss school uniforms and other matters related to the dress code. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the school auditorium, 247 S. Hill St.