Uniform, Yes, but not All the Same
We can uniform a kid, but we can’t kid ourselves about uniforms.
Whether you’re convinced that school uniforms restore order and safer campuses, encourage better grades and less peer pressure, the reality is that kids will be kids when it comes to what they wear. Some will love it. Some will hate it. Some will not care. But across the board there are always those who find ways to express themselves.
Yes, maybe even your child.
As more and more schools in Southern California--and nationwide--adopt uniform dress codes, students are figuring out how to make the system work for them. And why not? Today’s curriculum promotes and celebrates diversity. Baby boomer parents raised their Gen X children as individuals, who in turn have hammered the same ideals of individuality into the current class of students.
It might be in their choice of pants, pleated or flat-front. Or wearing striped socks in school colors versus standard solids. Or rolling up the requisite 18-inch skirt.
At Woodrow Wilson High in Long Beach, ninth- through 11th-graders are required to don khaki bottoms and white tops. But, as incoming 12th-grader Evelyn Rivera has observed, that doesn’t stop some of the 3,500 students from defining themselves by their coifs. “Kids will dye their hair crazy colors--fire-engine red, purple. They’re allowed as long as they wear their school uniforms.”
Seventeen-year-old Caitlin Cassidy unabashedly stretches the code at Campbell Hall, a North Hollywood private school she’s attended “forever.” Beige khaki bottoms and white tops also prevail here. In just what form is another matter. Caitlin has occasionally worn JNCO khakis, a hip streetwear brand known for its baggier styles, and a collarless white T-shirt. “I get stuff from stores that aren’t uniform stores, stuff that has a little more style.”
Sean Messarra of Holy Family School in South Pasadena says his classmates get around the strict dress code with their backpacks. They cover them with anything that pins on, hangs off or that Mom can sew on. The 8-year-old says he’s just now getting used to the yellow shirts and navy shorts he wears every day. “Sometimes I’d liked to wear normal clothes, which is what I wore in preschool and kindergarten.”
In 1994, the Long Beach Unified School District became the first public school system in the nation to institute a mandatory uniform policy in an effort to curb gang problems by limiting gang-like attire. The district’s administrators say the policy has resulted in a dramatic decrease in violence and discipline problems. That prompted President Clinton’s endorsement of school uniforms in his 1996 State of the Union Address; soon after, the U.S. Department of Education sent manuals on school uniform policy to every district in the country. More public schools have adopted some uniform dress code.
Critics point out that Long Beach’s results may actually correlate to the broader trend that schools have become safer nationally--regardless of uniforms.
“It doesn’t make any difference if you wear them or not,” says Wilson High’s Evelyn Rivera. “People still act the same. Uniforms are not really helpful if we don’t address the problems kids have.”
Proponents counter that many of those problems have to do with kids being teased for not wearing the “right” clothes. But Campbell Hall’s Cassidy says peer pressure still exists at her school because wealthier students wear high-end designer khakis or make fun of other kids on free-dress Fridays.
But for many parents, uniforms can be an equalizer. “No one stands out. They kind of all look the same,” says Kimberly Goodwin, whose daughter Tiera, 10, attends Barton Elementary in Long Beach.
As a clerk at Jane Adams Elementary, also in Long Beach, Goodwin observes the policy can only help in a district with multiple economic levels. “Uniforms are great because you have people who aren’t able to afford the things that are in style. This way they don’t have to worry about what their kids are wearing year in and year out.
Alice Williams of Compton says her only concern is making sure her 13-year-old son, Bruce, keeps out of his uniform before he goes back to Wilkerson Academy of Learning in Los Angeles. Two years ago, she found a uniform line called Uniformity. The Los Angeles company provides a seasonless collection that includes overalls, five-pocket jean-style pants, short jean-style jackets and reversible bomber jackets. She bought her son and 11-year-old daughter, Krysten, each a deluxe Uniformity package at $500 in 1997.
The clothes still fit. She figures that’s about a 10th of what she would’ve spent without the uniform dress code, and she’s added just a few extras since.
Bruce recently passed over his favorite shirt and jeans for his school duds.”I said, ‘What are you doing? It’s not time for school,’ ” Williams says, laughing.
“I think they’re cool,” responds Bruce, who tends to wear his striped uniform shirt untucked and the front of his pant legs tucked into his size 10 Fubu sneakers. That’s his subtle yet effective signature stamp. “You could wear them on the street and most people don’t say anything about them because they look like regular clothes.”
Understandably, the back-to-school shopping trial is a non-issue for the Williamses. “September means nothing to me. I’m not even tripping,” says Alice Williams. Sure, she’ll be back to chauffeuring her two kids. But there will be no morning debate over what the kids will wear--even over their personal flair, which Mom finds “cute.”
