School Dress Code

On July 30, 1997 the Board of Education of the Santa Barbara Elementary and High School Districts (Santa Barbara, California) considered enacting a new, stricter dress code for the secondary schools. According to Board minutes, the code proposed by the "district staff and site principals" was very strict and apparently even prohibited the wearing of "religious pride" articles. This was objected to and removed from the proposed code because it "fringes (sic) on first amendment rights." The Board placed the new dress code on the agenda for it's August meeting.

On Wednesday, August 27, 1997 at 7:00 p.m. the School Board met. At that meeting the Board voted to enact the new Dress Code which will apply to all high schools, junior highs and middle schools in the District. The new code is very strict and also very vague and bans any symbol which is considered "inflammatory."

Many students and parents came to the August 27, 1997 School Board meeting to object to the new dress code. Twenty people asked to address the board to object to the new code. We gave a petition to the board with the signatures of nearly one hundred students and parents opposed to the code. These signatures were obtained in only two days. There were no speakers who addressed the board in favor of the dress code. The Board members and staff also mentioned that they also have received many letters and phone calls objecting to the new dress code.

Because of the strong objections from parents and students, the Board made the following statements of policy and changes in the new Dress Code:

-During the first semester a student will not be disciplined for violating the new dress code.

-During the first semester the board will consider modifying the dress code and ordered the staff to set up a procedure to allow student input regarding possible modifications.

-The part of the draft code regarding shoes was completely removed.

-The board said the ban on caps and other headcoverings would "obviously" not be applied to students who wore these items for religious or health reasons.

-The Board members made many statements about how the new dress code should be enforced in a "reasonable" way and based on "common sense."

This was a major but only partial victory for the many people who strongly object that the new school dress code is still unreasonable and violates a student's Constitutional Rights.

Be happy that you don't have to follow these rules. And if you do, I feel sorry for you.