Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Schools cracking down on dress codes

Freshman Tabitha Vaughn made it all the way to the dismissal bell Tuesday before a hall monitor at Green Valley High School spotted the tiny blue crystal stud decorating her right nostril.

"He told me I had to take it out and go to the dean's office," Tabitha said after school. "I'm not going to take it out unless they catch me again. This was expensive; it cost me 60 bucks."

While the campus ban on facial piercings isn't new, students are running into more stringent enforcement of the entire Clark County School District dress code under new Principal Jeff Horne.

"We're at the start of a new year, and this is the appropriate time for me to be instilling my philosophy," Horne said Tuesday. "My philosophy is that the district regulations need to be followed."

Edward Goldman, superintendent of the district's southeast region, said he's instructed principals at all schools in his area to take a harder line when it comes to dress codes. Goldman said he's been fielding calls from parents upset that their child was reprimanded for wearing a navel-baring shirt or a nose ring while their friends at other campuses were not.

"They all have to be consistent or it's not going to be fair," Goldman said. "The rules for what's acceptable are the same for each school, and I've reminded administrators about that."

At Green Valley, Horne said he has met with his parent advisory committee to discuss the possibility of adopting standard school attire, where particular clothing styles and colors are required. The change wouldn't take place before next year, Horne said.

Luigi Robinson, whose daughter Donamia is a junior at Green Valley, was unimpressed with the crackdown on student attire.

"Quite frankly, I don't care what the kids wear to school as long as they're getting an education, and that's what the school should concern themselves with," Robinson said. "As for piercings, it's a decision for the parents to say yes or no to something like that, not the principal or the school district."

Robinson said school uniforms may make sense for younger grades but by the time students reach high school it's too late to expect them to conform.

"You can't tell a kid who's been wearing whatever they want every school day of their entire life they suddenly have to put on this or that," Robinson said. "Maybe it works if you start in elementary school and then keep it going through middle and high school, but you can't start with kids at the end of the game."

Coronado High School is also considering a school wardrobe for next fall, a proposal that has been met with enthusiasm by parents, students and staff, Principal Monte Bay said.

The school already has a "Dress for Success" program, where several times a month students are encouraged to wear more formal attire, Bay said.

While the overall wardrobe choices would be similar to Liberty's, Coronado students have suggested adding blazers for students active in extracurricular clubs such as government and forensics, Bay said.

A final decision on whether the school will add the new policy next fall will be announced in the student newspaper next week, Bay said.

The new Liberty High School already has a mandatory school wardrobe policy in place, with students wearing khaki bottoms with red, white or blue shirts.

Amy Rosar, assistant principal at Liberty, said this morning she was surprised at how little opposition there was to the school wardrobe.

"I admit I thought it would be more of a struggle," Rosar said. "But from the first day we had 95 percent participation, and it's only gone up from there."

District regulation 5131, which governs attire, states the Clark County School Board may establish a mandatory uniform only after a school shows that at least 51 percent of parents were surveyed with 70 percent of respondents in favor of the change. Mandatory uniforms have to be non-denim pants, shorts or skirts worn with short or long-sleeved shirts in solid colors, or with the school logo, according to the regulation.

But unlike the five Henderson elementary schools taking part in a mandatory uniform pilot study -- a project that required approveal from the Clark County School Board -- Liberty's dress code was devised using the authority provided under existing regulations and did not require a parental survey or board vote, Goldman said.

"Principals already have the right to determine what clothing detracts from the overall educational environment," Goldman said. "A standard school wardrobe is just an extension of that."

Liberty's students are given flexibility in choosing shades of red and blue, and khaki bottoms may be shorts, skirts or pants, Goldman said. That level of choice keeps the wardrobe from crossing the line and becoming a uniform, Goldman said.

Clark County School Board member Susan Brager-Wellman, whose district includes Liberty High School, said on her recent visit to the campus she was impressed by both the level of compliance and enthusiasm displayed by students for the stricter dress code.

Brager-Wellman said she talked with students in six different classrooms and that 75 percent supported the attire policy. One girl said she opposed it because it stifled her self-expression, Brager-Wellman said.

"I told her she could still express herself after school and on weekends and during vacations," Brager-Wellman said. "I'm not crazy about the word 'mandatory' going hand-in-hand with public schools, but I do believe uniforms take the focus off the fashions and put it back on education where it belongs."

As for required school wardrobes expanding to other district high schools, Brager-Wellman said she planned to quiz Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia at Thursday's board meeting about the situation.

"I'd like to re-read the regulation and see how this is all coming together," Brager-Wellman said. "I'd also like some assurances that the community and parents are getting a chance to have a say in all this."

At Green Valley High School, senior Barbara Scannell said she wouldn't be removing her nose stud any time soon.

"I go to school and do what I'm told so I can graduate," Barbara said Tuesday. "It's stupid to waste time hassling kids about stuff like this, they should just be glad we're here at all."

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