Update: School Board member Kris Cooke comments via email,: "... I could not agree with you more." (with her permission)
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Aycock Middle School's uniform requirements are quite specific. They clearly state the rules on what Josie is to wear to school:
Polo/Golf Style Shirt - Short or long sleeved - must have 2 to 4 buttons - Colors: white, light blue, orange, black.
Jinni and Josie went shopping for uniform stuff last week and found a great deal on polos and stocked up - she got some of every color on the "school uniform" table. Apparently she didn't check the color specifications before she went, however... she bought one of those subversive navy blue numbers.
Josie came in after school today wearing exactly what she had on when I kissed her good-bye this morning. She sat on the couch and said, "I had to change my shirt at school today".
"Why?", I asked. "Navy blue polos are not allowed, so they made me change"
"Who told you to change?", I asked, figuring it was Ms. Green, her homeroom teacher. "The new assistant principal, I don't know his name - he's new." " I was walking from my first period band class to get something out of my locker and he stopped me and walked me to the auditorium where they keep extra clothes to change." Wondering if they had set up dressing rooms in the auditorium, I inquired "You had to change in the gym!?!", "No, Dad... I changed in a restroom."
Since I know that Josie has Ms. Green for thirty minutes of homeroom, and then Juli Parker for band I wanted to know why they didn't say anything about her forbidden navy blue shirt before someone in the hallway finally called her on it. She said, "I don't know - my teachers didn't say anything. None of the other teachers I saw in the hallway before school and between classes said anything either." Then continued, "Other kids were wearing navy blue shirts too, they didn't have to change... they gave me a black shirt. They could have just told me I made a mistake and not wear navy again... but noo... they made me look like a Goth queen." She was wearing black pants - twill per the rules... she's trying to do the right thing.
OK, she made a color mistake that is obviously against the uniform policy and they made her comply - fair enough. But...
Where were the clothes police last year when students sauntered the hallways at Aycock with underwear and belly buttons showing? Aycock has had a strict dress code for many years, why wasn't it enforced to such a degree last year? Where was the closet full of appropriate clothing and the will of the administration to force kids change clothes in restrooms last year. Why didn't Mr. Price and other administrators lead the way and empower the teachers to enforce existing rules that had served the school very well for many years?
Rules are only effective when they are enforced. Today's episode proves that if Aycock had wanted to fix the problems they experienced with inappropriate dress last year, they could have done so... in short order... with the rules that were already in place. Instead, they used their lack of dress code enforcement as justification for forcing a policy of dress conformity on a school community that really only required strong leadership - not uniforms.
When, in the future, other Guilford County schools propose school uniforms, Aycock will be held up as a success story. Aycock's policy will be lauded by breathless administrators as a major factor in changing the discipline climate at the school. Accolades for the policy will be misplaced, however. In reality the administration and school community at Aycock simply developed a backbone.
5:10:57 PM 
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