Posted on 09/14/2002 8:24:37 AM PDT by 07055
Before Tammy Millikin moved to Memphis she had one big question about her new city: "Where are the bad neighborhoods?"
Then she promptly moved to an area she was warned against.
"That's where the diverse neighborhoods are," said Millikin. "It's critical that I find a place where my children could grow up around people with different backgrounds."
It's that near-obsessive quest for diversity and racial harmony that has Millikin out front on the first wave of school uniform protests in Memphis City Schools.
Millikin was denied her request to opt out of the mandatory districtwide school uniform policy in August. She appealed the decision to the next level, to one of three zone directors who each oversee a third of the 175 schools. She was again denied.
Now her case is the first to be presented to the school board, which Millikin did via E-mail earlier this week.
Millikin, whose daughter, Beth, 6, attends Raleigh Bartlett Meadows Elementary, said her quest for diversity clashes with the conformity requirement put forth by the uniform policy.
"We would be participating in a practice that is wrong by the standards of our beliefs," Millikin said in her written appeal to the board.
The board, which has the final say-so on the matter, has the option of holding a hearing or ruling on Millikin's appeal based on the written record of the case.
The board doesn't have to take any action at all, and in refusing to hear the appeal, the zone director's denial would be final.
So far, principals have denied 10 cases across the district. Of those, one case besides Millikin's has been denied at the zone director level and several are pending.
School officials say they aren't keeping districtwide statistics on how many have opted out successfully. They do agree that the numbers are likely minuscule, if there are any.
Central office school officials also said they are unaware of any suspensions related to uniform violations.
In the wake of Millikin's appeal, school board members have asked the state attorney general to review their uniform policy and have asked their attorney, Percy Harvey, to review Milliken's request.
The board policy allows for religious exemptions and calls on parents to explain how their beliefs clash with wearing a school uniform.
But the heart of the matter is the opt-out provision which advises parents who object because of "strongly held beliefs" to submit their reasons in writing to the principal.
The school board's policy doesn't give much guidance on what beliefs would qualify. It simply states: "A strongly held belief is a philosophy or set of moral principals that guides a person's decision about his/her life or lifestyle."
Several courts have upheld mandatory school uniform policies and even looked at questionnaires school districts give to parents requesting exemption.
Harvey recommended the school board use the questionnaire created by Forney (Texas) Independent School District, which was endorsed by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The form is used to judge the sincerity of the parent and determine whether members of the family have worn other uniforms, including baseball, football, cheerleading or scouting uniforms.
That court last October also upheld Forney's uniform mandate, which is similar to Memphis's policy, agreeing that the policy does not violate students' First Amendment rights. It also agreed that the uniform does not infringe on parents' rights to control the "rearing and education of their children." Raleigh Bartlett Meadows principal Daphyne Cooper said she's had near 100 percent compliance among her 689 students since school started.
Millikin is the only parent to request an exemption at the school.
Several school board members said they don't plan to budge on the uniform policy.
"Our intent is that it is indeed mandatory," said Patrice Jordan Robinson.
- Aimee Edmondson: 529-2773
Guess he couldn't be reached for comment.
Her child can be exposed to gang bangers, driveby shooters, murderers, drug dealers, burglers, rapists, armed robbers....
But, hey, isn't diversity our greatest strength?
Maybe she thinks it will be easier to turn tricks for coke in the slums. I think there may be more to this than meets the eye. Sure, Tammy Millikin may simply be stupid, but it is certainly possible that she herself is a junkie who wants to get closer to a source.
The crime is creeping out to Millington more each day.
Dennis is job hunting and we are NOT really looking in Memhis. It's high crime, high taxes, bad schools, bad universities..not much to recommend it except the RIBS at Corky's.
Something about this just doesn't smell right. Is this woman and her daughter black and is she moving into a modest black neighborhood and sending the kid to a black neighborhood school? Her claim for "diversity" sounds so shallow and the words used in the story, so contrived. Are we talking about a black candidate for the school board/city counsel building a record for her black constituents to demonstrate how she can fight the system?
Real diversity has nothing to do with the clothes you wear or the color of your skin.
The only diversity that matters is diversity of IDEAS.
Of course, the Democratic party prohibits the discussion in schools of any ideas other than those endorsed by the NEA.
The school uniform grace period is history for Memphis students caught out of compliance.
Starting this week, students face a series of sanctions, including suspension after several offenses, if they don't wear a white shirt with collar and sleeves, or a white golf-style shirt, and either khaki, navy or black bottoms.
The mandatory policy kicked in officially Tuesday, the same day Tammy Milliken allowed her 6-year-old to wear a Disney-inspired Pocahontas T-shirt to Raleigh-Bartlett Meadows Elementary.
School officials estimate 98 or 99 percent compliance across the 118,000-student district.
But a handful of parents like Milliken are asking to opt out of the policy based on religious or other "strongly held beliefs."
Milliken says she has lost sleep over the uniform policy and her strongly held belief that conformity is a bad thing and diversity is everything.
"The idea of requiring my children to wear a uniform, which is mandatory conformity, is exactly the opposite of the way I live my life," said Milliken, whose written request was denied by the principal.
She's appealing to Vivian Dillihunt, one of three zone directors who oversees a third of the city's 175 schools. She expects a decision later this week. [snip]
They will go well before you and I.
With a mother as stupid as this one, the girl better get used to uniforms.
If she's lucky, she'll get to wear one at McDonalds.
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