Perhaps in response to the Columbine High School tragedy, an on-going campaign to mandate public school uniform wear has swept across the nation, including in Tennessee.
The New York Times reports that in Miami, of 328 public schools, 196 require uniforms, double that of last year. Two-thirds of public schools have mandated uniforms in Cleveland, four out of five public schools have uniforms in Chicago, and more than half the public schools in Boston have adopted uniforms. Proponents of school uniforms in public schools argue that uniforms save time, money and promote safer schools.
They believe that students need to concentrate on their academic performance and can express themselves in ways other than their clothing. Critics ague that enforcing mandatory uniform wear is just a "scapegoat" and violates students' first amendment rights. They believe enforcing uniforms is diverting attention from the main problem- school safety.
As of yet, Nashville Davidson county hasn't adopted complete uniforms, but it's not impossible, says David Hudson of the First Amendment Center, which is funded by the Freedom Forum (www.freedomforum.org).
Hudson says that mandatory uniform wear in public schools, is in fact infringing on students' rights of self-expression. "I don't think you solve problems by [inhibiting] different outlets of students' expression, said Hudson. "I think a lot of movements for uniforms are in reaction to the Columbine shootings."
Hudson acknowledges that in some cases, the students want uniforms, but in many cases, they're not given much of a choice.
"There's just not a lot of concern for student's rights. "
Though uniforms haven't been enforced in public schools yet, the dress codes of many schools have been beefed up. "We've got about a dozen schools that have a uniform dress code," said Craig Owensby, Director of Communications of Metro schools. "In the schools we're doing this, it involves more the color [of the clothes] than the uniform." Owensby gave Bordeaux Elementary as an example, where children are given the option of wearing black and yellow clothing as a standard "uniform."
"If we were telling kids exactly what to wear, that'd be different."
The effects of public school uniforms are debatable. In Long Beach, CA, after adopting a mandatory district-wide rule on uniforms for all elementary and middle-school students, the following year The U.S. Department of Education published a report, entitled "School Uniforms: Where They Are and Why They Work" in which they claimed that overall school crime had decreased by 36 percent, fights decreased by 51 percent, sex offenses decreased by 74 percent, weapons offenses decreased by 50 percent, assault and battery offenses decreased by 34 percent, and vandalism decreased by 18 percent.
In the Memphis school of Douglas Elementary where a voluntary uniform ruling has been enacted, Guidance Counselor Sharon Carter was quoted as saying "The tone of the school is different. There's not the competitiveness, especially in grades 4, 5 and 6, about who's wearing what." On the other hand, critics argued that findings aren't accurate because they don't take into account smaller school sizes and other laws passed during the first year of the mandatory school uniforms.
In most cases, parents are given the chance for their child to opt-out of uniform wear and funds are usually provided for those who cannot afford the uniforms.
"Our approach right here is we do it when its driven by the parents," said Owensby. He added, though, at this time, "it's not something we're looking to do statewide."