Should public school students have to wear uniforms to get an education?
That’s the question facing residents and officials in Chicago, where parents and principals are begging the Board of Education for a policy enforcing the uniform requirements adopted by individual schools.
The Chicago Board of Education does not have a dress code, said spokesman Lori Sanders. Under the School Reform Act, local school councils (elected bodies that include parents, teachers, community members and students) can draw up dress codes or uniform requirements but cannot suspend or expel students for flouting them, Sanders said.
“We’d love to see uniforms at Taft, but there’s no point in having them if the board won’t enforce them,” said William Watts, principal of Taft High School on the Northwest Side.
Watts is one of several Chicago principals who have sent letters to district officials requesting a uniform code. The Taft local school council, which recently changed the school colors to blue and white because the original blue and silver have become the colors of a local gang, wants to make students wear a uniform of white shirts and blue slacks or skirts, he said.
“The kids would hate it at first, but they’d get used to it,” Watts said. “It would go a long way toward keeping the gang influence out of our school.”
Naperville Central senior Gerald Norey, who transferred this year from Simeon High School in Chicago, disagrees. “Having a uniform isn’t going to do anything about the gangs,” Norey said. “There’s going to be a protest if they try it. I don’t think anyone in Chicago will wear a uniform,” he added.
Chicago administrators do not plan to take action on requests for a dress code or uniform policy in the near future, Sanders said.
