The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Letters

April 20, 2009

If issue is how clothes fit, don’t deny individuality

Kelly Davis

Sharon

I am outraged at the wonderful opening line in the story in The Herald: “There will no longer be a parade of baggy jeans and short skirts down East State Street before 3 p.m.”

Contrary to popular belief that is not how all our children dress.

Superintendent Sarandrea states that it is important for children to understand what is expected of them in the work place and the new policy requirements reflect that. So I guess taking away individuality is the best way to do this.

This is a time in a child’s life for self expression, like it was for all of us. How you dress in kindergarten has no bearing on what you are doing as an adult.

There are many successful people that do not fit into this narrow-minded ideal. Maybe we should present options to our children that don’t imply that success is measured by whether they wake up and put on a shirt and tie versus steel-toe boots and a hard hat.

What we need to do is focus on the academic accomplishments of our students. We need to let parents parent and teachers teach.

A close look at the proposed policy on the Web site shows it is restricting certain haircuts, i.e. the mohawk, described as an extreme hairstyle. This is not the military. Where do the lines become crossed?

One big push for the dress code is that clothes fit. If that is the case, than make that the issue. If children are hiding phones in hoodies then make that the issue.

Require them as outerwear only. Don’t make it an issue of jeans and hoodies because khakis can be bought two sizes too big as well. Banning denim is not the answer.

In these hard economic times do we need someone telling us how to spend money in regards to our children? They say it will be affordable but I guess that depends on whose salary that is based on.

If this passes tonight, I will be the first to start a petition against it.

Text Only
Letters