Actress Melissa Gilbert (news), president of the Screen Actors Guild (news - web sites), poses backstage during the 11th annual Screen Actors Guild awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, February 5, 2005. REUTERS/Fred Greaves
Posted on 02/06/2005 9:08:20 PM PST by Ellesu
SOUTH HADLEY - The new dress code at Michael E. Smith Middle School that seeks to limit the amount of skin pupils may bare in class had its genesis last year after some female students fell out of their tops.
"We had girls fall out of their shirts in the sixth grade," principal Melodie L. Goodwin said during a recent interview at the school about the code, which takes effect March 21.
Some male teachers expressed concern about the amount of flesh being displayed, and Goodwin started gathering input to develop a new dress code
"They were a little uncomfortable interacting with some of the girls," Goodwin said.
The principal said for some reason pupils began wearing much more revealing clothes to school starting last spring, something about which parents may be ignorant because many youngsters leave home with a hooded, zippered top under which they may be wearing a halter top. Pupils also started rolling down their sweat pants at school, revealing the tops of their buttocks, as well as not wearing brassieres or underpants and traipsing around in stiletto heels.
"This year we had a young lady come into the cafeteria with only a bra and sweat pants on," Goodwin said. "Her mom agreed it was very inappropriate."
Goodwin attributes the racy dressing to the styles adolescents see actors and rock stars wearing on television.
"The mothers told me it's hard to find clothes in the stores that cover everything," Goodwin said.
To help the cause, the school's student council will hold a fashion show in March or April featuring clothes appropriate for the classroom.
The new code bans flip-flops, high heels, hats, caps, bandannas, clothing items that have "obscenities, fighting words, incitement or defamation on them" and clothes that are "sexually suggestive and therefore distracting to learning and inappropriate for school."
The code requires that shorts and skirts reach the fingertips of the person wearing them when the person's arms are at his or her side. No underwear should be showing and spaghetti straps and halter tops are not allowed. All shirts must cover the skin between the bottom of a shirt and the top of a skirt, shorts or pants.
Pupils who violate the code must correct the situation or they will have their parents notified and asked to bring more appropriate clothes to school.
The School Committee recently approved the new code by a 3-1 vote, with School Committeeman Mark Dulude casting the sole dissenting vote. Voting in favor of the new code were School Committee members William Adams, Julia Miller and Ira J. Brezinsky, chairman of the board.
School Superintendent Gus A. Sayer called the new policy "very sensible," adding that it is similar to codes in middle schools in Amherst and Northampton. Sayer said officials have been cautious about dress codes since a controversy in the early 1990s when South Hadley High School student Jeffrey Pyle wore a T-shirt with the message "Co-ed Naked Band, Do It To the Rhythm" to gym class and was asked to remove it because of its sexual implications.
Pyle challenged the school's decision on the basis of freedom of speech and took the matter to court. The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 1996 that students could wear clothing with such messages to school.
"It made people a little wary of exercising some reasonable control over what students may wear to school," Sayer said.
The committee's lawyer has advised it that setting the dress code should stand up in court because it does not limit speech.
Sayer said because there is no penalty for violating the dress code lawyers may also not raise the issue of offending students being deprived of an education. The courts have ruled students may wear sayings to school as long as they don't cause disruptions, according to the superintendent.
The current code at the middle school, which has about 800 pupils in grades five through eight, sticks closely to state law.
Brezinsky said he feels the new code is "absolutely reasonable" and came about after considerable input from various interest groups. The School Committee chairman said the T-shirt issue concerned freedom of speech and "had zero to do with the dress code."
"I think it is a pretty fair set of rules," Goodwin said. "We want everybody to be comfortable in school."
Several officers of the school's student council, which reviewed the code, said they may not be entirely happy with it, but they will obey it.
"I think the students should be listened to a little bit more," Jessica Kennedy, the 14-year-old eighth-grader who is president of the student council, said.
Kennedy said she and many students believe shorts should not have to be so long that they touch the fingertips.
Eighth-graders Allaire D. Gaudette and Andrew P. Murray, who are both 13, said they believe students should be allowed to wear hats to school. Allaire is vice president of the student council and Murray is a member of the council.
Great! I hope it catches on, nation-wide!
''We had girls fall out of their shirts in the sixth grade,'' principal Melodie L. Goodwin said ...
Leaves the burning question of what they fell out of in the fifth grade...
And not to say from whence 'principal' rec'd her Education Degree...
Horse hockey. They're not looking hard enough.
A modest dress code in all schools would go far to reign in pre-teen raging hormones. Perhaps with hems lower grades would even rise. Who knows?
Uniforms would be a major improvement.
Don't think Middle School or Elem School students should get to decide what they wear to class...This type code was in my son's high school 9 years ago....some girls were sent home to change on a regular basis...in fact, the code was county wide...
Also, I know some thin 50 year old women who have a hard time finding jeans that don't show their crack.... If the parents did not spend "their" money on these clothes, the Mfg would not make them anymore..
My brother says that in New York when they started casual Fridays, people started wearing much more expensive casual clothes than the suits they used to wear.
We've had a dress code in our system for years, but it is not consistant throughout the grades...
I wore a sleeveless turtle neck to the high school. I'd worn for years at the Elementary and broke the high school's rule....You must have sleeve in your top there......
Consistancy is the most important thing if you want cooperation from parents and teachers alike...
.And yes the local merchants had to start carrying different types of clothing.
[...a controversy in the early 1990s when South Hadley High School student Jeffrey Pyle wore a T-shirt with the message "Co-ed Naked Band, Do It To the Rhythm" to gym class and was asked to remove it because of its sexual implications.
Pyle challenged the school's decision on the basis of freedom of speech and took the matter to court. The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 1996 that students could wear clothing with such messages to school.]
You've got to be $#!^^!%@ me.
Does the school also have a dress code for the teachers and staff?
In Tinker v. Des Moines, the Court said schools could not ban speech just because they didn't like the message. They would have to show disastrous consequences to the school (like gang warfare or substantial disruption of the educational process).
Since then, the standard has mellowed a little, with new restrictions for things like school papers and official school events, but the basic idea that students can convey whatever political message they want stands.
A student can wear a "John Kerry 2004" shirt, and s/he can wear a "David Duke" shirt or a confederate flag shirt--as long as there is no serious racial strife.
If a student can wear a "The Rock is an Ass" shirt, then another student can wear a "The Pope is an Ass" shirt (as long as there is no major religious violence against the wearer or against Catholics). The school cannot discriminate against the viewpoint, even if it's a really bad view.
At least, that's my interpretation of Tinker.
"The code requires that shorts and skirts reach the fingertips of the person wearing them when the person's arms are at his or her side. No underwear should be showing and spaghetti straps and halter tops are not allowed. All shirts must cover the skin between the bottom of a shirt and the top of a skirt, shorts or pants."
I feel like I'm back in 1967. We had a music teacher named Mrs. Rance who made a career out of expelling girls whose 'mini skirts' were more than 1/2 inch above their knee.
In spite of her efforts I saw more V than I've seen in last forty years since.
As for Mrs Rance she died of a heart attack half way through the tenth grade and when the principal announced her death, complete with a silly requiem about her dedication to education and love for her students, we all cheered knowing we would never have to sit in her class and here her go on about the Sound of Music ever again.
The moral of this story is that the world belongs to the young and if you are over thirty, they can't wait for you to leave.
So shall it be written, so shall it be done!
When are parents start going to be parents. Some girls actually hide their pregnancies from their parents. Schools shouldn't have to have dress codes, parents should properly bring up their kids.
If they enforce decency standards, then yes, they could suspend her for that.
But if she came back with a new shirt that read "Allow Lewd Shirts in High School," they wouldn't be able to stop her. The first shirt is somewhat sexually suggestive (that she would take off her shirt), the second is just a political message about lewdness.
Actress Melissa Gilbert (news), president of the Screen Actors Guild (news - web sites), poses backstage during the 11th annual Screen Actors Guild awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, February 5, 2005. REUTERS/Fred Greaves
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.