Essay on Implementing Uniforms In School is The Right Thing To Do

In 1987, a public school in Baltimore, Maryland became the first to instill a school uniform policy in the United States. This idea of all students dressing alike spread throughout the country, and by 1994 a school district in Long Beach, CA became the first to require a whole school district to wear school uniforms (Background of the Issue - School Uniforms - ProCon.org). Today, an average of 23% of public and private schools enforce a school uniform system (School Uniform Statistics). But this change in dress code policy did not come about without controversy. Although some will argue uniforms promote safety, focus, and an even playing field in schools, school uniform policies oppress student’s freedom of expression, advocate for conformity, and cause more problems than they fix.

With the gang activity growing throughout the 80’s school officials realized that implementing uniforms or strict dress codes may help combat the problem with gang apparel in schools. Previously dress codes have been seen in the form of uniforms or strict rules in parochial, private and public school systems across the country. In private schools, uniforms were first implemented to mark a student’s social status (Motsinger par 8). Many people, according to Alfie Kohn, author of What to Look for in a Classroom…and Other Essays most people associate uniforms with, “the good ole days [when uniforms] symbolized [. . .] obedience.” Uniforms were a sign of respect, children respected their elders and presented themselves well while wearing them. As stated by Anderson in “School Dress Codes and Uniform Policies,” “[t]he first public school known to have adopted uniforms was Cherry Hill Elementary in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1987. In 1994, Long Beach (CA) Unified School District (LBUSD) was the first school district to adopt a districtwide uniform dress code policy” (par 11). During the Clinton administration the talk of school dress codes and uniforms in public schools first surfaced after his State of the Union Address in 1996. Since Clinton’s speech, schools all around the country have revised and implemented new dress code policies.

School uniforms are beneficial and have proven to be a strong deterrent against gang violence, dress code violation and have a significant impact on instructional time as a result of less focus on nonacademic issues such as student attire. We believe that a mandatory school uniform policy will provide a more secure school environment, promote an atmosphere for greater discipline, and increase-learning opportunities for students by removing many of the distractions associated with various types of clothing; however, a grant request for $25,000 to purchase additional uniforms for students who are economically disadvantaged was rejected. The exact reason why the grant proposal was rejected was not clear. Mann (2015) asserts that there are

By wearing a school uniform, one is not apt to get made fun of. Everyone is in the same apparel and can’t scrutinize any part of another child’s outfit. By feeling that everyone is the same, that is one less worry on a child’s mind. This leaves more room for educational worries rather than individual ones. Socially this has sculptured me to realizing what is important. A Child's need to be fashionable brings along another dilemma for school violence. Children no doubt will envy other children's clothing and lack the financial resources to purchase similar styles. Subsequently, children have been violently injured or even murdered, in upper grades, for their trendy clothes, sneakers, or professional sport-team gear. “With clothing shown by music videos and television sitcoms, more children wear similar styles of baggy, oversized shirts and pants to school. Such clothing can become a means of transporting weapons or drugs into school and thus indirectly increase school violence”(King). School uniforms reduce these occurrences. The solution of school uniforms is a definite aid in decreasing a child’s worries about getting harassed, and most importantly their safety.

“If it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear uniforms” This statement from Bill Clinton was what started a movement toward using uniforms in-state school in the United States in 1996. Since then school uniforms have become a common thing in the school system in the United States. There is no doubt that school uniforms can lead to loss of students’ rights to express themselves and that school uniforms will not generally stop bullying even though they might increase student’s safety.

School uniforms were first implemented in the late 1990s 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.

A survey conducted by Statistics Canada between 1992 and 1995 in Ontario high schools shows that 91 percent of incidents involving crime and police interventions in schools took place where uniforms were not mandatory. Furthermore, uniforms help school officials in detecting intruders like drug dealers who come unwelcome into the school. Thus, uniforms reduce violence at high schools by discouraging gang fights and making it easier to recognize intruders.

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.

In this paper you will find four main reasons why all public schools should adopt a school uniform policy, and there is a paragraph with a counter argument with school uniforms. There is a discussion on how the crime rate decreases amongst students, how uniforms save the families money, how gang related activities have decreased, and how there is less stress between students and parents. By the time you finish reading this paper, you too should agree that all public schools should adopt a school uniform policy.

The main reason for implanting a school uniform policy would be that it increases the safety for the children at school. Gang violence in schools is at an all time high. In 1989, a high school student from Baltimore was shot and wounded in a fight over a pair of sunglasses that cost $95.00. Since this incident educators started restricting what students could wear. (Brunsma, 2006) By doing this, the violence in the school has decreased. According to Holly Charlonne with Life Script, she states that gangs have a need to wear a certain color to distinguish them from other neighborhood gangs. If our children are required to wear a uniform, this will lessen the chance of any possibility of violence out break at school associated with gangs. (Charlonne, 2007) Since everyone will have on the same colors, the uniforms may be viewed as a way to bring the children closer together by having the same effect as would sport uniforms. The decrease

The school uniform policy has been an issue in the school systems for years, and there seem to be no straightforward answer to the problems that schools are facing, such as violence, gang activities, and bullying. Many public schools have adopted the uniform policy, while others have not. School uniforms are a great benefit for students and faculty that would provide a sense of security for students and staff. Some administrators believe that uniforms create a safer learning environment, improve discipline, and raise academic achievement. Although, opponents of

“One widely cited study, on schools in Long Beach, California, showed a decrease in school crime after the introduction of uniforms, but the city had taken many other measures to reduce violence at the same time, so it’s hard to tease out how much uniforms mattered. Many studies show no change in school culture, and some even show negative results: in one 2007 study, the introduction of uniforms accompanied an increase in the average number of assaults in one district’s violent schools” (“The Downsides of School Uniforms”).

The issue of whether or not school uniforms are a necessity in today’s society has been a long standing debate. However, it did not come onto the national scene until 1996 when then President Bill Clinton spoke of the matter in his annual State of the Union Address. Citing the Long Beach city school district in California, Clinton spoke of the positive effects of uniform implementation, including: decreased drug cases, sex offenses, violent crimes and fights.

According to a Long Beach Superintendent, having wearing uniform policy decreased school criminal activities by thirty-six percent, school violence by fifty-one percent, and vandalism to the school dropped eighteen percent (Constitutional Rights Foundation, n.d). California’s Long Beach unified school district also found out that after they introduced uniform policy in 1994, the crime rates dropped by seventy-six percent and attendance ratings have never been higher. However, it doesn’t prove that the uniforms led to these declines. There are many other reasons that may affect these problems (Svensen, n.d.).