Why Do School Uniforms Violate The First Amendment

First of all, mandatory school uniforms deny students rights, stated in the U.S constitution. In the first Amendment, it states, “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech. Recently, a student at Riverside Middle School, wore a pink shirt with a message on it that stated, “ #TeamTanya” He was spreading awareness for his mother, who had breast cancer. With school uniforms, this student would not be able to spread awareness for his mother. Not only it would be against what the U.S.A. stands for, it would be uncivilized and send a bad message to other countries around the world.

As a society we value the individual choices that we are able to decide upon in our everyday life. School uniforms have a negative effect on students, due to the lack of individuality and self-image that they are able to express. Therefore passing student policies requiring school uniforms is misleading as it creates more issues than it solves. Students should feel they are different from everyone else and have to freedom to act the way they want and wear what they want. Enforcing school uniforms does not affect academic situations in any way for uniforms to be mandatory. Schools need to re-think their decision on school uniform policies for the mental and physical well-being of their students.

School uniforms delay a student’s transition into becoming an adult, so uniforms should not be entailed. According to PublicSchoolReview.com, “Students that are forced to wear uniforms are ill-prepared to become an adult that has to choose things for themselves” (ProCon.org). Everyone knows that adulthood involves making your own choices. All throughout high-school, students that get to choose what they wear already know what clothing they like and what they feel they look best in. However, with a uniform policy, students would then have to experiment with new clothing and could potentially waste money right away.

District 230 should not mandate a school uniform policy because of the following: school uniforms go against our rights, raise questions of equality, and they rely on anti-democratic principles. (MP1)To start, school uniforms go against rights in the first amendment like: freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. (EV)Robson states in his Viewpoint, ¨Symbols or words on clothes are most likely to clear the speech hurdle; they will then be evaluated against the “disruption” standard articulated by the Supreme Court in the watershed case Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Tinker involved students wearing black armbands to protest the war in Vietnam. Borrowing from civil rights cases, the court decided for the protesters:

The first reason why schools should not require school uniforms is because they don’t allow you to express yourself or be yourself. Students generally express themselves through their clothing and if there is school uniforms it takes that choice and creativity away. Students should be given the choice to pick what they want to wear as long as it follows the dress code regulations. A dress code should be enough, as long as students follow the dress code regulations there should be no need for uniforms. Also when a student can’t be expressive through their clothing then it can cause a decrease in their self confidence over themselves. So, school uniforms should not be required at schools, it cause students to be self conscious and takes away creativity.

It may be surprising to hear that school uniforms break the first amendment of the constitution but it is very true. The first amendment guarantees freedom on many things, one of them is Freedom of Expression. Freedom of Expression is about more than just saying what you want to say, it’s also about being able to express your ideologies and beliefs which are, unfortunately, hindered by school uniforms. Uniforms weren’t a common thing of the past because they were only enforced in private schools. That is, until 1987, when Maryland and Washington D.C implemented school uniforms in public schools. School uniforms should be banned because they promote conforming over individuality, they increase the amount of bullying, and they can affect a student’s self-image.

Some people also argue that mandatory uniforms could be considered a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution, located in the Bill of Rights (Hudson). People argue this because they feel that uniforms limit self expression, which is a coveted right by most people outside of America. “I’ll tell you; we’re proposing that everyone can only get along if everyone conforms to the same standards. It’s not a healthy lesson. The message should be conflict resolution no matter the physical appearance. In the real world, people do not all look the same” (Hoofnagle). Uniforms will not prepare a child for the future. They will make a rougher future for most children because they will not understand that people have the right to be unique, diverse, and to express their individuality.

School uniforms are taking away students freedom of speech. First of all, school uniforms are restricting students right to express themselves. Experts believe, “American civil liberties union (ACLU), have argued that mandatory uniform policies violate student's right to free speech, which is protected under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution” Students should have the right to free speech. According to the author, Tamar Lewin, he conveys that ”The Supreme Court's Tinker decision firmly established that students have a constitutional right to express when they are at school so long as the speech is not disruptive and does not interfere with the rights

Traditionally favored by charter and private schools, and institutions of the like, school uniforms are being introduced to public schools at an increasing rate. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees all citizens the right to express oneself; The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada states that having a choice in clothing is “…Crucial form of self-expression.” The ACLU also argues that “allowing students to choose their clothing is an empowering message from the schools that a student is a maturing person who is entitled to the most basic self-determination,” (Four Reasons). Self-expression of style aside, choices in clothing are also a popular method of expressing support for any variety of social causes, ideologies, and affiliations, and school uniforms strip students of this option completely.

Have you ever wondered how it would be like for all schools to have uniforms? Or how would it feel like to have to wear the same thing every day to school and not have to worry about what you're going to wear? Or even worry about following the school dress code? Well schools all around the world have uniforms and some don’t, but should your school have uniforms or would you keep your privilege of picking what you want to wear under the regulations of dress code? Here are some reasons why or why not school uniforms should be aloud.

Would you want to be forced to wear the same clothing every day and not able to express yourself? Uniforms don’t seem such a big deal to the society but to the kids who have to wear them it is a big deal to them. Most schools don’t have uniforms because of the first amendment for freedom of expression. School districts should think about what the kids think about the uniforms instead of forcing them to wear them.

As all citizens should know amendment 1 guarantees freedom of speech and expression. By enforcing uniforms you are going against this amendment because by the way you dress you are expressing yourself. This issue is controversial because people have different opinions and reasons for wanting dress code and not wanting dress code. Some say students should have dress code so students aren't bullied, cannot carry weapons.Others say uniforms should not be enforced because not everyone can afford uniforms, some people wanna be able to express themselves, and some think they look bad in them. However these opinions can be bias because students will not want uniforms cause they're the ones that have to wear them and parents want them cause it's their child getting bullied or harmed cause a weapon was brought to school.

Kids shouldn’t wear uniforms,because they can’t express what kind of style they like. It costs too much for families who already struggle to make ends meet. It violates the right to freedom of speech and expression. To a lot of people uniforms such. Uniform they take away your freedom of expression. Wearing school uniforms are the worst they make schools look bad.

Does schools uniforms infringe on students’ freedom of speech? Parents and teachers, both argued about the idea of school uniforms. Some pros and cons show that school uniforms do infringe on students’ freedom of speech. School Uniforms restricts the student’s freedom to express themselves by not letting them. However it doesn’t stop bullying and it may even increase it, also promotes conformity over individuality.

The first major reason for not wearing school uniforms is, it forces a student to conceal his or her individuality. To many people, it appears that the school system is trying to strip away this individuality on purpose, but now is the time that the school should be embracing it and helping the student become the person they are meant to become. “According to opponents of uniforms, even preschoolers should have input into their wardrobe, and the need to encourage personality, confidence, and independence grows more important as the student becomes older” (Chen). Because of this lack of self-expression, students feel their first amendment is being violated and most people would agree, which causes the school to look bad. Another way of looking at it is they are forcing students to become on mold, or one certain way of being. However, the problem with making them one is, no matter how they look they will still have their own individual personality traits that will come out in the end. If forced to wear the uniforms, many students would express these traits by adding things to their uniform such as brightly colored gems for girls and different