A Uniform Look

By the 1980’s,problems with gang violence led to dress codes that attempted to do away with gang colors.Dress codes have routinely been used to prohibit clothes with threatening language,insulting racial slurs,alcohol or drug related messages.Uniform policies began to spread in the late 1980’s and then steadily increased throughout the 1990’s. Though parochial and private schools have a long history of mandating school uniforms”.School uniforms are always discussed in Chicago 's public schools.Why? Due to the fact that school officials feel as if these set of rules will help improve their schools. Something about CPS makes people cringe when brought up to a suburban family or school official.The majority of Chicago 's public school require uniforms yet little to no learning is going on in these classrooms due to their surroundings. A 2013 study reported in the NCBI Social education by Burdick-will, concluded that “For many student attending public high schools,violent events either at school or in their neighborhoods are frequent and routine.This is clearly not the case in all parts of the country and means that the experience of students in chicago may not be representative of students nationwide.It is unclear whether the effects of school

Uniforms are argued to positively affect student safety by: lowering student victimization, decreasing gang activity and fights and differentiating strangers from students in school building. Dress codes in public schools would be good, in order to cut down the violence, which would eliminate the problems of

Long Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles, intended to reduce crime through their uniform policy and at the conclusion of policies the first year they reported fighting incidents at the schools fell 51 percent, drug use declined by 69 percent, and crimes involving weapons dropped 52 percent (Time, 1995). Today, the Long Beach Unified School District has mandatory school uniform polices in place at seventy-seven schools serving roughly 70,000 students in grades K-12 (LB Schools, n.d.). The uniforms have also been attributed to better grades and higher achievement. Chris Eftychiou, spokesman for the Long Beach Unified School District, says that since uniforms were adopted 20 years ago, the district has also seen gains in other areas including student achievement, state test scores, and higher attendance (Nittle, 2014). Following Long Beach’s success with unifroms, other urban school districts have been making the transition to uniforms, which now make up approximately one fifth of all student dress attire nationwide (NCES, 2014). While the focus for school uniforms has been on reducing crime in urban areas, the data from urban districts highlight other unexpected but positive benefits that are equally applicable to suburban

An issue in school that effects many inner-city schools is gang relations. “Uniforms add measures of safety in identical dress. Gang identification is obscured. Group violence and theft are dissipated... Children are no longer identified by their 'colors.' Uniform dress alleviated the feelings of imminent danger for students who were afraid they might inadvertently dress in gang colors.” (Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms?). This serves as a way to get rid of gang violence and affiliation in the school environment. Without gang recognition, there is less gang violence.

This program was meant to solve low attendance, discipline problems, gang violence, and sexual assault. After a year of uniforms, the overall crime rate in the school system was down by ninety percent. Assault was down by eighty percent, vandalism by seventy percent, and suspension by ninety percent. This prompted other districts to follow including Los Angeles, San Diego, and even New York.

Is the absence of school uniforms leading to an up rise of violence between children in public schools? According to the National School Safety Center’s Report on School Associated Violent Deaths, “Since the 1992-1993 school year, two-hundred seven were shooting victims” (Kelly n pag). According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), “10% of all public schools had one or more serious violent crimes (murder, rape, sexual battery, suicide, physical attack or fight with a weapon, or robbery), and most of the serious violent crimes occurred in the middle and high schools” (Kelly n pag).

School uniforms were first implemented in the early 1900s and were used for the schooling of minorities, specifically Native American women (Dussel, 2006). In 1996, the US Department of Education reported that only three percent of public schools mandated uniforms. As a result of the belief that uniforms make schoolrooms more orderly and disciplined, President Clinton encouraged schools to adopt uniforms (Gentile et al.,2012). Shortly after, uniforms were widely adopted in urban communities to counterbalance students wearing gang colors or being identified as poor. Since urban communities have often been stigmatized with narratives that are colored by violence, many of the current research studies associated with uniforms focus on the relationship between uniforms and misbehaviors, attendance, and teacher retention.

uniforms that it deter crime and increase students safety. However uniforms don't decrease crime it

In a longitudinal study on discipline and school police data, researchers found that school referrals were down thirty-three percent from the previous year when students did not wear uniforms. (Sanchez, et al.,2012). This quantitative research study did a wonderful job of getting a sufficient amount of personal student opinions on the usage of uniforms through a self-report survey. The study illuminates the distaste that students have for school uniforms. Sanchez (2012) conveyed that eighty percent of students reported that they disliked or strongly disliked wearing uniforms. Moreover, students also shared that bullying, fighting, and gang activity was still

School uniforms lower gang violence since students can’t group up and dress in some particular ways, and visitors can be distinguished from other students. They also help reduce bullying in public high schools. According to Kathleen C. and Carl A. Cohn’s “School Improvement Initiatives in Long Beach, California: The Quest for Higher Student Achievement, Behavior, and Dress Standards” in Education magazine, which was published on December 22, 1998, Long

In Long Beach, there has been a major decrease of violence and discipline since 1994 ("Fact Sheet On School Uniforms," 2001). Proponents believe that school uniforms have been a major contribution to this decrease.

Larry Wilder, Ed. D had spent 19 years at Fresno County Office of Education, and currently directs the administrative services program in the Fresno Pacific University School of Education said, “The National School Board Association estimates that approximately 135,000 guns are brought to America’s 85,000 public schools each day.” This clearly states that there is a serious problem with students bringing guns to school. If school uniforms are implemented, these numbers are certain to go down. For example, the Long Beach Unified School District to require uniforms and in the first year of having them, there was a 50% decline in fights and cases of students with weapons. Other schools have dress codes that require the beltline to be exposed at all times for fear of a weapon in the waistband. Educators say that because of that policy, there was a decrease in violence, fights in schools and improved student achievement. School is meant to a healthy learning environment and by decreasing violence, with the use of uniforms and dress codes, schools are starting to become better learning environments.

It is a belief that school uniforms teach students to respect their learning environment and behave themselves, and, therefore improving discipline. However, that assumption isn’t entirely correct. Researchers have actually found that school uniforms don’t make students better behaved. According to a study of more than 4,500 students, those who wore a school uniform did not have fewer behavior problems or better attendance. Forcing students to wear uniforms lead to more problems and misbehavior instead of encouraging discipline. Students could get into trouble if they did not wear their uniforms correctly. Many kids in today’s society cannot stand the thought of someone telling them what to do, especially what to wear. Instead of encouraging respect, uniforms may cause rebellions. For example, in 2009, a group of students at John A. Ferguson Senior High School rebelled against their school uniforms. Instead of following their school uniform requirements, the students wore what they thought would be a better school uniform to school. Not only uniforms don’t earn schools the respect from its students, but it may also lead to more problems.

Wearing uniform to school have increased of the years, although some schools have not adopted the school uniform policy. Administrators and staff believe that wearing uniform have made schools safer for students, have improved school attendance and increased student achievement, and have reduced the changes of students being bullied. However, others have argued that wearing uniforms have not improve student behavior and wearing the uniform have infringed on student’s freedom of individuality. This essay will explain the importance of adopting a school uniform policy, why all public schools should have a uniform dress code, and how wearing uniform will provide a unified school environment. Therefore, all public schools should adopt a school uniform policy because, it uses will help to reduce bullying, provide a safer learning environment, and help to recognize gang affiliated members.

1. King also points out,” More specifically, many have argued that school uniforms assist in reducing school violence and theft; preventing gang activity, such as students wearing gang colors and gang insignia; providing discipline in students; helping students concentrate on their school work; helping students to resist peer pressure; and helping school officials easily recognize school intruders. (P.32, P.33)