Uniforms in Public Schools have been a hot topic in the news for the past couple of months. The support of School uniforms was the focus of news stories in many publications in February and March. Many of the Bureaucracies involved in this topic have a lot to say about why uniforms should be allowed in public schools.

The requirement of school uniforms are said to be an invasion of parental rights and duties. Even though there are no laws stating that Public School students are mandated to wear uniforms it is gaining popularity with a majority of parents around the country. This topic is categorized as having an undemocratic spirit (not allowing students to have the freedom to choose what they want to wear). If students were mandated to wear uniforms and violence in schools decreased; would it still be constitutional. This topic then becomes a debate on freedom versus order.

President Clinton has in fact become an occasional salesman for this notion of public school uniforms, although he is not it's inventor. He has devoted a lot of time to how the nation can improve education through higher standards and higher expectations, get higher performance. The President recommended that public schools adopt uniforms as a remedy for violence that range, in some schools. The Long Beach, California school district (the first public school district to introduce a school-uniform policy) recently found that after students started wearing uniforms, there was a substantial drop in student drug cases, sex offenses,

assault and battery cases and fights. The learning environment improved as teachers could focus more on education and less on discipline. In other parts of the country a few schools are either experimenting with school uniforms or talking about doing so. Baltimore, Cincinnati,

Dayton, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Memphis, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Phoenix, Seattle, and St. Louis have also adopted mandatory or voluntary school uniform policies with promising results. Bill Clinton stated in his State of the Union Speech on January 23 that he challenges all our schools to teach character education, to teach good values and good citizenship. He stated if it means teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear uniforms. President Clinton has tried at the national level to encourage all kinds of grassroots reforms and to make it possible for people to do what they think is appropriate in their schools; not to tell schools how they should go about improving learning and improving the environment, but to support them when they wanted to do it. If school uniforms can help deter school violence, promote discipline, and foster a better learning environment, then strong support should be offered to the schools and parents that try them. The Department of Education, with input from the Department of Justice has now developed a new manual on school uniforms which sets forth the benefits of school

uniforms; provides a road map for establishing a school uniform policy for schools interested in school uniforms; and describes various model information programs from a number of school districts across the nation. The President gned an executive order instructing the Secretary of Education to distribute to all the nation's 15,000 school districts a six page manual explaining how school uniforms can be useful, but noting that if mandated, there must be room for exemptions. The Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Justice, should continue to develop guidance and information about these and other initiatives so that local organizations, families, and educators throughout the Nation have the tools available to make our schools safe, drug-free, and crime-free. The President feels that uniforms don't stamp out individuality among our young people. He thinks that they slowly teach our young people one important life lesson: that what really counts is what you are and what you become on the inside, rather than what you are wearing on the outside.

/ Ever since president Bill Clinton suggested the use of school uniforms as a means to reducing school violence, calls to the American civil liberties Union regarding student expression has increased. There is no doubt that appearance affects reality and uniform creates uniformity. However there are strong opposition to the uniform policy as a stifling of student’s self expression as an attempt to infringe on their individuality. The true question is, who is raising our kids? When has it become the governments responsibility to control what students can wear? We have gotten to the point where the government is not only measuring the hours students can walk on public streets but to regulate everything even to what they wear! If they can regulate what we wear, which other rights will be taken from them-the amount of television watch or perhaps how much food you consume? Many of the regulations venture into what traditionally was considered the domain of parents. School official and others involved in this crack down act hastily without considering teen’s constitutional rights.

This issue of "uniformity of expression" is not only being fought by students but by parents, teachers, administrators, and civil libertarians. Norman Seigel the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, stated in the New York Times on February 11, " A student’s choice of dress is an expressive activity an consequently protected by the Fist Amendment." As long as a student’s dress code is not affecting the educational process or is a threat to society it should be of no concern to the school or the government.

Joseph Haslid the Harlem District leader also opposed the uniform policy on February 18 in the New York Amsterdam News, he stated " the Board of Education president should instead focus on replacing outdated textbooks and "antiquated equipment found in most public schools."

He also added that students who attend buildings which are falling down as they walk in the door "Need a lot more than uniforms to make them feel good, especially when other conditions are so miserable."

School should be one of the places where the student has the choice and that should include being able to decide what they wear. Teen particulary, are at a time wear self expression is so important to them, by mandating uniforms the government is not only depriving them of civil liberties but of the opportunity to develop as an individual. With fashion and appearance in a child’s life are crucial parts of self expression. The case of James Kinley is an example of the deprivation of freedom of expression.

James Kinley, a student of Anderson South Carolina was suspended for wearing a confederate flag jacket to school because the school official said that type of clothing initiate fights as a result of flag symbolism of the South segregation past. Kinley argued that wearing his jacket should be protected by the First Amendment. To this the ACLU responded "we feel uniforms significantly interfere with the student’s rights to exercise free expression-especially their right to wear message T-shirts."

In New York City, a city considered to be the most diverse and expressive city in the nation, why should our students be compelled to all look the same? We are all different and we should be able to express those differences.

The New York board of education has voted unanimously to require school uniforms in all elementary schools beginning in 1999, arguing it prompts discipline and education. The nation’s school district has 670 school and 550,000 students affected by the plan. A school-uniform policy is already in effect at 229 of the schools. Under the plan, which will take effect in September 1999, each school will be allowed to choose the style and color of its uniforms. And if a school committee of parents, teachers and administrators decides against uniforms, the school can apply for an exemption. Parents can also apply for an exemption in a meeting with school officials, but will have to agree to an alternative dress code.

Elliott Ettenberg, CEO of Bozell Retail, raised questions about how the uniform will be sold, via the school or retail outlets. Reports indicate that students and parents will $120. In Oakland, CA, families will get more financial help from the school district in buying school uniforms and clearer information about their right to opt out of the uniform program, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California said Friday. In partial settlement of a lawsuit, the Oakland Unified School District, which requires students to wear uniforms in grades kindergarten through eight, has promised to provide enough aid so that any students who wants a uniform can purchase one, the ACLU(American Civil Liberties Union) said. When the district first required uniforms last year under a new state law, it provided financial aid to needy families of only $15 for up to two students, and $30 for three or more, said ACLU staff attorney Ann brick. She said some uniforms cost $40 or $50 and students commonly need two. The agreement approved by the school board broadens the standard for aid and is supposed to guarantee that no students will be kept from wearing a uniform for financial reasons, Brick said. She said the ACLU will monitor the district’s compliance and, if dissatisfied, go to trial with its suit. plify and strengthen its notices to parents telling them they can excuse their children from wearing uniforms without and academic penalty or other retaliation against the students, the ACLU said. Although the states law says parents can opt out of a school uniform program without giving a reason, Brick said the Oakland district has been telling parents to give justifications for their decisions and arrange a meeting or telephone call with the principal.

The 1994 law allowed school districts to require uniforms, a policy that supporters say improves school discipline and reduce violence. School Board President William Thompson, who had proposed a stricter policy, said, "The policy is important to diminish peer pressure, promote school unity and promote school pride." Thompson said uniforms " will show that what matters is who you are inside, not what you wear on the outside."

NEW YORK-(BUSINESS WIRE)- March 19, 1998 - is ruling by the New York School Board calling for the city’s 550,000 grammar school children to wear uniforms, is now raising concern among retail experts. "As this appears to be a growing trend around the country, and might include all 1 million New York City students, it seems irresponsible not to consider the fall out for the business community," said Ettenberg. The decision for the uniform policy is likely to lead to initial 10-15% decline in sales. Although the decision is a boon for restoring discipline, it is a bust for local retailers.

All government polices reflect choice made among conflicting values, and many different propel, groups, and institutions influence policy decisions. One aspect of the political process involves public opinion. uniforms in public schools is an area where public opinion matters greatly. Parents, students, principles, school board members, civil libertarians either support or

disapprove of this policy.

The critics of passing a bill allowing school districts to choose uniforms for their students accuse school of taking a simplistic approach to school violence, one that infringes students’ right and perhaps even smacks of racism.

Dress- code supporters retort that doing away with gang-related clothing will reduce fighting over real or imagined sights between students, while making the classroom dress standards feel that school uniforms will level the playing field in classroom by removing the message of social and economic students carried in clothes. Uniforms will also help ease parental tension. No more arguing over what to wear to school every morning between children and parents.

Tanisha Johnson, a seventh-grader at Ruffner Middle School in Virginia, can remember schoolmates fighting over whose sneakers were more expensive. Those kinds of argument don’t happen anymore. Tanisha and her classmate are required to wear dress shoes to school. In an attempt to combat disorder, violence and academic under achievement, many schools including Ruffner are now focusing energy on learning and requiring students to wear school uniforms. It ease social pressures among the have and the have notes.

In the number of test cases around the country where uniforms were brought in the number of fight and other discipline problems went down, behavior was better and academic achievement improved. Another big attraction, especially less expensive than the name-brand clothes that must of the children today want. Parents also feel that taking the emphases off clothes will help ease students focus better on school.

Yet not everyone favors the idea of uniforms on public school children. The American Civil Liberties Union insists that a uniform policy creates individuality and concludes. "Ban every form of individual expression and what you have left are not students, but soldiers," But in truth how can imposing a uniform policy on school children be remotely with banning every form of individual expression. The reason for introducing uniforms is not to impose conformity, but to inject a sense of purpose conformity, but to inject a sense of purpose.

There are dress code for just about anything wrong with kids learning that you dress a certain way at a certain time. It close put discipline back in the schools.

help design the uniforms, with the cost ranging between $100 -On March 18th 1998, the New York City Board of Education voted last night to require its half- million elementary-school children to wear uniforms. Under the police, approved unanimously, pupils must comply with the dress code beginning in 1998 unless their school of parents are granted special exemptions. In doing so, the New York City school district, the largest in the country, joins in a national trend in which public schools troubled by truancy and low achievement have turned to uniforms in an attempt to return discipline and a serious learning environment to their classrooms. This policy is important to diminish peer pressure, promote school unity and promote school pride.

All creatures wants to live their lives where they can meet pleasure. The id which is biologically instinct, enables a person to do whatever he likes. But the society in which he is surviving always try to mold his id by expecting norms from him. He wants to be a wild creature living in forest with no limitations and barriers. Same is the case with school uniforms and students. Being human, they want to be in civil costumes rather than formal codes.

The Mayor of New York City had declared that there should be dress code in schools. This issue seems to be controversial. Mayor Rudolph w. Giuliani thought of an ideal school where all students gain equality in costumes and no values like superiority and inferiority. He thought that there shouldn’t be any dscrimination based on clothes. Students form gangs and wear expensive clothes so as to pretend superior to others. According to him, students should take more care of their education rather than clothes. Students do jobs and spend money they earn on buying new clothes that are in fashion. By wearing hot and new stuff they try to embarase and hook to the opposite sex students. Mayor Giuliani is right to some extent.

But most of the students and their parents don’t agree on this issue. They thought that it is limiting their freedom. As according to the first amendment ( bill of rights ), citizens have the right of freedom of expression. And government should’t interfere with it. This liberty is known as expression clause. So under the shelter of this amendment , people ( students ) have the right of fully expressing themselves by wearing any desired clothes. It acts as restraint on government to pass any law ( for instance, dress code ) that interferes with the id ( now becomes the right ) to wear any desired costume. Parents argue that imposing dress code is not going to do anything as long as there is formalism in education. They thought that the idea seems to be stupid. The main issue of dress code is to form equality among students. Parents argue that students would follow the same track from which they were deviated from. Students put on white shirts and blue pants of Polo, Tommy Hilfiger company (favorite and famous at a particular time ) where as the others might wear khaki shirts and pants. Again, the issue of superiority and inferiority would rise. In a journal one of the parents said the youth and thus life is quite small, so let’s express fully and what’s appropriate for you.

So at last, I concluded that these formal uniforms seems to be useless. Although, its primary aim seems to be interesting but unfortunately not able to fulfill it. What I personally think is that uniform is not going to make any difference in the behavior and feelings of students. There is nothing to do with the dress code. The only way students become more interested in studies is to take away formalism and teach them in a way that make them understand that what’s going on.