Free Republic

When a Napa seventh-grader was cited for wearing Winnie the Pooh-themed socks in class and struck back with a lawsuit, it marked an odd but not unprecedented clash in the decadelong spread of dress codes and uniform policies at public schools. The seventh-grader and five other students at Redwood Middle School, along with their parents, say the school's dress code is so strict that it amounts to a uniform policy. California law allows parents to opt out of dressing children in uniforms -- a choice that Redwood Middle School doesn't offer. The case, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union,...

Napa, Calif. (AP) -- A seventh-grader might end up in court for wearing Winnie the Pooh socks to school. Toni Kay Scott, 14, was sent to an in-school suspension program called Students With Attitude Problems last year for violating a dress code, according to a lawsuit against the Napa Valley Unified School District and Redwood Middle School. She had donned socks with the Tigger character from the Winnie the Pooh cartoons on them, along with a denim skirt and a brown shirt with a pink border. But the school's policy requires students to wear clothes with solid colors in blue,...

"TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's judiciary is to launch a fresh clampdown on women it deems are inappropriately dressed and "spreading prostitution," the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday. "The ones who spread prostitution and intentionally seek to disturb social and moral security by inappropriate clothing and behaviour will be firmly confronted," Tehran's hardline prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said." ""It has been noticed that some people with an outrageous appearance in public hurt religious feelings and beliefs," he said, adding the crackdown would start on March 6 and continue for a month. "

SAN DIEGO -- A federal judge has upheld a suburban San Diego high school's dress code, rejecting a challenge by a student who got pulled from class for wearing a T-shirt with anti-gay language. Tyler Chase Harper sued the Poway Unified School District in 2004 to overturn a policy that says the schools will aim to reduce or prevent "hate behavior," including threats and attacks based on sexual orientation. The student claimed the policy limited free speech. The front of Harper's T-shirt read, "Homosexuality is shameful. Romans 1:27." The back read, "Be ashamed. Our school has embraced what God has...

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Defying the Islamic clamor in some European countries, Tunisia has served notice that it will continue to oppose any "sectarian dress" incompatible with its tradition. This includes head scarves for women, who have been reminded that, according to a 25-year-old government directive, they are not to wear the "Islamic scarf" in schools and public buildings. In contrast to neighboring Algeria, the veil has rarely been worn in Tunisia. Such a form of dress, a senior Tunisian official said, "reminds us of the time when extremists threw acid in the faces of unveiled women. Fundamentalists have totally failed...

LINCOLN PARK, Mich., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- At least seven high-school students in suburban Detroit were sent home for wearing patriotic T-shirts on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The T-shirts violated the school's dress code, school officials said. "I think it's a little ridiculous under the circumstances," said Kaye Belcuore, whose 14-year-old granddaughter was sent home from Lincoln Park High School for wearing a T-shirt with a patriotic message on it. The school superintendent said the school held a moment of silence Monday to give students an outlet for their patriotism, The Detroit Free Press reports. Students...

http://us.video.aol.com/video.index.adp?mode=2&guideContext=65.73&pmmsid=1704808 CNN's Ed Lavandera reports that a Dallas school board official wants people to pull their pants up. (Sept. 7)

The authorities in the Pakistani town of Mansehra say they are drawing up guidelines for aid workers helping victims of last year's earthquake. They want to ensure their dress and behaviour does not offend sensibilities in North West Frontier Province. Some Muslim clerics accused women working for international aid organisations - including Pakistani women - of dressing improperly. They were also alleged to have danced with men and consumed banned alcohol. Some 50 international organisations are based in Mansehra to help millions of people left homeless after the October quake, which killed more than 70,000 people. The aid organisations say...

WATERBURY, Conn. -- The city, which already has a strict dress code for public school students, is considering implementing a similar one for teachers and other professionals in the school system. The Board of Education is developing a policy that would ban such clothing as stretch pants, low-cut shirts, sun dresses, sandals and hats in the workplace. A draft proposal details the acceptable and unacceptable clothing, including what material is appropriate for pants, and would stipulate that skirts can rise no more than three inches above the knee. It would also ban facial piercings. The board plans to vote on...

WIMBLEDON has served an early warning to the world’s tennis stars: step across the line on the tournament’s strict dress code and you will be sent packing. For more than a century Wimbledon has fiercely guarded the genteel reputation that today sets it apart from other tournaments. Officials there want spectators to keep their eye on the ball, not on the increasingly revealing outfits that have caused controversy elsewhere. The guide for competitors this year has been updated to warn them that they risk being defaulted — the tennis equivalent of a red card — if they break the tournament’s...

District ordered to pay legal fees Student sued over T-shirt ban. Warren Hills district facing payment of nearly $600,000. Wednesday, June 21, 206 BY LYNN OLANOFFThe Express-Times WASHINGTON TWP. | Warren Hills Regional School District was ordered to pay nearly $600,000 in legal fees incurred by a former student who sued after school officials banned him from wearing a "redneck" T-shirt. The plaintiff says the federal magistrate's ruling proves school officials were in the wrong when they suspended him for three days in March 2001 for wearing a Jeff Foxworthy T-shirt. "I'm glad they had to answer for what they...

Sikh bracelets, but no Christian rings at school bans pupils from wearing 'purity rings' A group of teenage Christians have been banned by a secondary school from wearing "purity rings" as a symbol of their religious belief in chastity until marriage. At least one of the dozen pupils, who all attend the same girls' comprehensive in Horsham, West Sussex, is considering legal action against the Millais School for "a breach of human rights". Although the school allows Muslim and Sikh pupils to wear headscarves or kara bracelets as a means of religious expression, the purity ring - a small band...

Western clothes are death sentenceNOOR and her boyfriend used to go out a lot and listen to dance in their favourite restaurant in Baghdad. The 26-year-old university lecturer also used to enjoy going window shopping at night in the city’s once-glitzy Mansour district, dressed in the latest fashions. That was before the “men in black”, the Taliban-style militias waging terror against the urban middle class, arrived in Noor’s neighbourhood, threatening to shoot, kidnap and shave the heads of anyone who challenged their draconian strictures. The militias are part of a hardline religious crackdown organised by Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the...

LATTA, S.C. - A 15-year-old girl led a small protest march Monday over her high school's ban on Confederate flag clothing, which she is also challenging in court. Candice Hardwick walked with about a dozen people, about half of them family members and some wearing Confederate T-shirts, a few blocks to Latta High School. Hardwick wore a Confederate belt buckle and button and had the Confederate flag on her cell phone cover. She removed those items before entering the school, where she is a sophomore. Hardwick says she wants to wear the emblem to pay tribute to ancestors who fought...

Regarding the dress code story it seems that my column was used as the basis for a number of reports that somehow jumped the gun. As far as my article is concerned I stand by it. The law has been passed by the Islamic Majlis and will now be submitted to the Council of Guardians. A committee has been appointed to work out the modalities of implementation. Many ideas are being discussed with regard to implementation, including special markers, known as zonnars, for followers of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, the only faiths other than Islam that are recognized as such....

SAN FRANCISCO – A suburban San Diego teenager who was barred from wearing a T-shirt with anti-gay rhetoric to class lost a bid to have his high school's dress code suspended Thursday after a federal appeals court ruled the school could restrict what students wear to prevent disruptions. The ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals addressed only the narrow issue of whether the dress code should be unenforced pending the outcome of the student's lawsuit. A majority of judges said, however, that Tyler Chase Harper was unlikely to prevail on claims that the Poway Unified...

BREAKING NEWS: SHAW HEIGHTS PRINCIPAL SURRENDERS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 6, 2006 Shaw Heights Middle School Ends Neutral Dress Code Westminster, CO: Due to the exemplary behavior of the students at Shaw Heights Middle School and the progress made throughout the week, as well as Attorney General John Suthers news release regarding the display of flags in schools, Myla Shepherd, Shaw Heights Middle School principal has announced that the neutral dress code will end effective Friday, April 7, 2006 at 8:00 a.m.

(CBS4) WESTMINSTER, Colo. The immigration debate and recent demonstrations over the issue have led to a change in the dress code for a middle school in Adams County. Students at Shaw Heights Middle School are no longer allowed to wear anything that is patriotic, including camouflage pants, because they have become a political symbol for a version of patriotism, CBS4 reports. "It upsets me that we cannot support our troops -- the military," said Kirsten Golgart, an eighth grader who was told she'd be suspended if she didn't change her clothes. "We can't support our country. If we're American, I...

"Slippage." That was by far my favorite word in the letter Andover's West Middle School Principal Denise Holmes e-mailed to parents regarding their children's attire, or lack thereof, at school. Her note was prompted by the outfits a group of girls was wearing on Valentine's Day, with skirts so short that ... well, let Ms. Holmes explain. "This one girl had the cutest pink underwear on," she said. "I shouldn't have known that." Well, no. But she's not the problem. The problem is that all the boys knew it as well. So Holmes sent out a gentle reminder. Very gentle....

JACKSON, Mo. - Nathan Warmack wanted to honor his heritage by wearing a Scottish kilt to his high school dance. Then a principal told him to change into a pair of pants. What began with a few yards of tartan has sparked an international debate about freedom, symbols and cultural dress. More than 1,600 people have signed an Internet petition seeking an apology for the high school senior. Scots in the United States are assembling a traditional ensemble they hope the student will wear to the prom, and his family is trying to change the school's dress code policy. ''It's...