The Fayette Board of Education has quickly transformed into Fayette's “Fashion Police.” In the name of safety, they have proposed all students tuck in shirts, wear belts and eliminate baggy clothing. Further, ID badges for students are being considered.

I have been reading the editorials and laughing at the ridiculousness of these proposals, and feel it is time to speak up. It does not directly affect me, for I have graduated and these new rules will never apply to me. However, I have a sister in the school system, and know that many more teens would agree when I say that these proposals need to be eradicated.

On the surface, the dress code sounds like a good plan to enhance school safety. It seems simple and quick, but this dress code would be like merely trying to put a Band-Aid on a slit wrist. A dress code is not the solution. If anything is the solution, it is getting parents more involved with the lives of their youth.

The proposed dress code's underlying message is that “only kids who dress what the system declares as proper” are safe, productive, well-meaning students. In kindergarten, children are taught that they are not to judge a book by its cover. However, a dress code completely judges students by their clothes. Supposedly it is expected that these teens “act” like adults, yet a dress code is treating them completely like kindergartners.

I wonder if everyone on the board of education adhered to these guidelines when they were students in high school? I wonder if any of them had the brashness to wear bell-bottoms, or any other past styles that could have easily concealed a weapon? Kids are not wearing baggy clothes or holey-jeans to hide weapons; just as former generations had their ideas of style, this is the style characteristic of Generation X.

The board or other baby-boomers may not agree that this new style is attractive, but I'm sure their parents probably did not particularly care for their styles either. A great American leader once said, “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.” The same should be said in regard to dress code: the board may not agree baggy clothes look proper, but they should defend their students' right to free fashion expression so long as not to disturb the learning process.

Baggy clothes, un-tucked shirts, or beltless pants are not disturbing this process. If anything, the students feel more comfortable in these clothes, and thus, are able to learn better. Further, implementing these rules is a double-edged sword. Not only would the students be disturbed by a dress pattern foreign to them, teachers would lose valuable instruction time. Teachers searching for cheat sheets, calling role, and checking for bubble gum waste enough time. These teachers went to school so they could teach, and it should not be in their curriculum to make sure each student knows how to dress like the mannequin in the Gap.

Two students in Columbine, Colo., did a very horrendous crime. Another student followed suit in Georgia and one in Canada. So, because of a grossly small minority, we are going to succumb to fear? This is just what all of those psychos wanted; this is letting the losers win. A dress code in response to their actions is not justice for the relatively good behavior of our students. Like most anyone, I can think of many successful, law-abiding people who did not dress to the proposed code. From actors, accountants, musical artists, athletes, actors, and many more, untucked shirts did not lead to lives of killing sprees. Safety cannot be equated with the clothes we wear, for clothes are merely expressions of ourselves.

Let's face it: If a student really wants to get a gun to school, he is going to get there if he/she is wearing baggy or tight jeans. Nothing gets in the way of determination. Now, if you really want to stop that kid from blowing up the school, a metal detector is going to hinder him a lot more than him wearing a belt on his pants.

That is not to say I support metal detectors, just that is more realistic than this code. The bad kids are going to red-flag themselves and get thrown out of the system long before a dress code eliminates their danger. If not, overprotection by facing teens to conform to a standard way of dressing is only going to toughen their transition into the codeless real world.

Or maybe the board should just issue orange fatigues, and at 9 a.m. every school day, just lock the students' wrists and ankles to their desks until the end of the day? In-school suspension could be changed to “The Hole,” where kids are held without food and water. And they could just keep the cafeteria setup, for they have been serving prison food in schools since the beginning of time, I think.

Wait, maybe that is the reason our schools are unsafe? That's it! Let Mr. J. Crew dress all the kids alike, but until the Atlanta Bread Co. is hired to cater school lunch, our schools will never be safe! I hope I have made my point.

Brent Johnson
Former Sandy Creek and current Georgia Tech student

Back to Opinion Page | Back to the top of the page