Friday, May 25, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.
Quannah McCall Elementary School's 484 pupils will sport uniforms when they head to school next fall, and it took only 13 families to say so.
Three families opposed the measure, the Las Vegas Sun reported on Thursday, and the rest of McCall's 220 families didn't weigh in one way or the other. So a tiny percentage of parents made the decision for everyone.
As the Sun's Emily Richmond reports, Clark County principals who want to enact a stricter dress code or require uniforms must poll students' parents. The proposed dress code may be adopted if it is supported by at least 55 percent of the ballots returned - even if the number of ballots returned compose a meager percentage of the school's families.
We support school uniforms because they have been shown to improve classroom behavior, help downplay the differences in students' economic status and make trespassers easy to spot.
Nevertheless, it is wrong to have a policy under which 13 families can make the decision for 220 families. At the very least, the School District should require that at least half of the ballots be returned before setting the dress code for an entire school.
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