Professional Documents
Culture Documents
sontag
Sociology
Mr. Jacobsen
period three
06.01.04
place of pertinence on the mantle of issues in the Herricks Union Free School District.
At Herricks High School, the senior school for students in grades nine through twelve,
and Herricks Middle School, the lower school that serves grades six through eight,
“inappropriate” and “promiscuous” sartorial choices have been cited in calls for a
revision of the present dress code. 1 Regardless of where a group may stand on the
issue of the dress code, it can be agreed that most of the problems with the current
The present dress code, which was adopted in the summer of 1997, puts the
onus for appropriate “student dress and general appearance [on] individual students
and parents.”2 Simultaneously, however, “the Board requires students to attend school
in appropriate dress that meets the health and safety standards and does not interfere
with the learning process.” 3 The present policy also bans attire “which is obscene or
The current code also explains “the Superintendent of Schools and other
room for contention to arise: the entire policy is based on subjective judgment of
appropriateness. That which constitutes appropriate public school attire for one may
Hence, fragmentation occurs between different groups that fall toward the
juncture, the dress code is under attack from a more conservative element within the
district, the Herricks Parent Teacher Association, a chapter of the National Parent
Teacher Association. The PTA is “the largest child advocacy group in the United
States,” boasting over six million members. According to National PTA President
Linda Hodge, the “PTA is addressing challenges that include parents’ time
constraints, cultural differences, and school budget shortfalls.”6 The National PTA is
a powerful lobbyer for national decision making bodies, and local PTA chapters
possess an analogous lobbying power over local decision making bodies, often Boards
of Education.
2003, a number of district mothers, also Herricks PTA leaders, got up to point out
their concern at “promiscuous” dress, lamenting that “tank tops, shirts that don't reach
the waist, hip-hugger shorts, and navel exposing jeans, [and] huge high heels” 7 have
all become acceptable articles of clothing for students in the halls of the district’s
schools. The parents also complained about student dress at school concerts,
evidently expressing a desire that attire be “more conservative and not so revealing
Hearing a complaint in such a manner is often the first step the Herricks Board
mostly legislative body elected by the voting-age citizens that live within the
member is elected to a three-year term, but either one or two seats on the Board are up
for re-election each year, so the Board can never turn over completely after one
election.9
The Board is a local body: the power to legislate is vested in it by the New
York State Board of Regents and the New York State Education Office and it has no
control of policies beyond the Herricks UFSD.10 The Board only possesses power as
a body: no individual board trustee has any executive, legislative, or judicial power by
The Board’s role is mostly to develop policy, and thus it is a legislative body. It has
executive power in the sense that it “hires a superintendent to carry out these
policies.” It also has judicial authority in the sense that it hires and fires those who
make the judgments and assess the punishments. According to the High School Rules,
however, the “Right of Appeal” after disciplinary action has been taken against a
meetings. In New York State, “School boards are required to have open meetings,”13
and though public participation is not required, the Herricks Board of Education
invites comments from those persons who are subject in some way to its decisions.
Community members of all ages often voice their own individual concerns, but
individuals also speak on behalf of larger special interest groups. Many of the high
school students who attend board meetings are there on behalf of the Herricks High
School Student Government, the primary special interest group on the other side of
theory, the student body at large and bring the concerns of their constituents to the
represents the interests of a specific group. The Student Government also are in
charge of many social activities for the students, earning money that is mostly use to
The Student Government does not have a lot of power. Much of their money
comes from the school budget allotment for clubs. In a peculiar twist of irony, this
budget is created by the Board of Education and voted on and paid for by the
taxpayers, many of whom are actually members of the Herricks chapter of the PTA.
The Student Government also suffers from a degree of apathy from their constituents.
A great number of the students that they represent do not care one iota about the
Student Government’s actions, and many remain wildly ignorant. The name Student
Government is a misnomer. Despite the name, they do not have any actual executive,
legislative, or judicial power within the school. They merely have the power to
suggest to the administration. At the same time, the Student Government benefits
from a vague understanding that at least at the high school level, the students in a
school district should have some say in the policymaking process. Thus, an otherwise
perception.
The stance of the Student Government is that the current code, despite its
vagueness, is acceptable because students tend to stay within the bounds of what they
consider appropriate attire. Though a bare shoulder or exposed midriff may have
been scandalous decades ago, students have been desensitised to tube tops and low-
cut jeans. They don’t distract as they once may have and they do not interfere with
the learning process. The current dress code is acceptable also because “most kids
aren’t that you see dressing ‘promiscuously’ when you look around the halls.”
expression. As Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas famously wrote in the majority
opinion in Tinker v. Des Moines School District in 1969, “It can hardly be argued that
newspaper, the Highlander, co-authors Akhilesh Pillalamarri and Tina Wilson express
Though the authors bombastically fear that “a strict dress code would force everyone
to accept one way of thinking,” they are reflective of students that have heard dress
code horror stories from schools across the United States, where within the last
several years, public school students have got into serious trouble for everything from
having blue hair18 to, in a eerie reminder of Tinker, wearing anti-war t-shirts.19
Another reservation some students have with the current dress code issue is
that it seems to solely target the dress of females. “It just bothers me because there’s
nothing in it about guys,” says Herricks junior Emma Cohen.20 Faced with the
response that there is nothing particularly “promiscuous” about a male’s boxer shorts
popping up in the back or a large white t-shirt, she said that the dress code could “at
least be neat.”
The Student Government representatives lobby the Board the same way that
the PTA does. They attend board meetings and offer their opinions when the floor is
members, and board meetings have been known to deteriorate into shouting matches.
Once the Board becomes cognisant of an issue within the district, its members
decide a course of action. One approach the Board often takes is outsourcing an
investigation to a committee, as was done with the dress code. A Dress Code
representatives, and headed by Mr. Joe Leccese, principal of Herricks Middle School,
was established.21 The committee then does work on its own and comes back to the
Board with a proposed course of action or some suggestions for a new policy. After a
committee comes back to the Board, board members draft a new policy. Then the
Board as a whole votes on the new policy. If the vote is unsuccessful, the previous
policy remains in effect until if and when an alternate version is drafted and voted
upon. Should the vote be successful, the policy becomes official, and it is inserted
into the Herricks Public Schools Code and Policy Book, which is exactly what its title
When the Board is faced with a matter of operating policy like a dress code, it
generally follows the procedure outlined above. With matters that require public
approval like a budget vote, the board will draft a budget that the public then vote on.
Since every school district must pass a budget, the board must draft and redraft until
On the matter of the dress code, the Student Government and the student body
they represent have a simple goal: maintain the status quo. Most students won’t have
a single day in their high school careers when they come close to the bounds of
the vague dress code that is in place, and due to the apathy cited before, most students
do not care or do not even know how much trouble that vague policy can cause.
The students do not want any change, even one to a more specifically worded
policy that could ultimately protect them. In the final analysis, the students do not
want the complicated bureaucracy of district policies to affect them, and their Student
Government representatives know this. They would thus accept a change on a minor
policy like concert attire, because, once again, most students already dress
appropriately for concerts. The Student Government does not have a hidden agenda
say that any group whose prime goal is to improve the lot for “the children of
America” is a private interest. Considering that there are over 60 million school-age
children in the United States as of the year 2000 Census, 24 anyone who is attempting
to aid them would theoretically be aiding society as a whole. When the parallel
between the national and local levels of the PTA is drawn again, the same proportional
truth is bared. There are hundreds of parents in the Herricks PTA, lobbying the
in the district. The true nature of the PTA as a private interest is apparent in its hidden
agenda, which is made manifest through activities like supporting a stricter dress
code.
a. To promote the welfare of children and youth in home, school, community, and place of
worship.
b. To raise the standards of home life.
c. To secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth.
d. To bring into closer relation the home and the school, that parents and teachers may
cooperate intelligently in the education of children and youth.
e. To develop between educators and the general public such united efforts as will secure for
all children and youth the highest advantages in physical, mental, social, and spiritual
education. 25
It is hard to find therein a rationale for a stricter dress code. The PTA has a
conservative agenda and an attachment to the morals of yesteryear. The present dress
code stipulates that clothing not interfere with the learning process. In the present
day, some of the attire the PTA members claimed was “inappropriate” doesn’t get a
second glance. And in a district where test scores are considerably higher than New
York State and national averages 26 and the median grade in the graduating senior class
of 2004 is an 82, it is hard to find many things in the Herricks system that are
interfering with the educational process, especially clothing. Many PTA members
whether it is a goal of their particular organisation or not, they want to be rid of the
What do the PTA members want? Some have gone so far as to suggest
uniforms. Most seem to want a stricter, more specific policy that would ban certain
types of risqué clothes on girls. But the PTA, much more so than the Student
Government, seem to be more likely to settle far short of their demands, especially
after a simple visual examination of the students in the hallways reveals that the
copious “promiscuous and inappropriate” dress that was lamented at the 11th
Ultimately, the vagueness in all of the Herricks dress codes is the root
problem. Interestingly, most people in authority positions err on the side of individual
liberty and free expression, but a t-shirt that may be hilarious to one teacher walking
down the hallway may be grotesque to another. There is simply too much room for
subjective judgment in Herricks dress code policy. How much is too much skin?
What words really are offensive? Though the Dress Code Committee seemed to be
loath to over-legislate,27 perhaps the time to eliminate the grey area in the dress code
has come. More specific is not necessarily stricter; it simply means that dress is
he sees fit, instead of wondering each morning when he gets dressed exactly what the
<http://www.antonnews.com/illustratednews/2003/09/12/news/>.
2 - Herricks Union Free School District. Board of Education. Herricks Public Schools
<http://www.pta.org/aboutpta/presidentsmessage.asp>.
7 – Whitely
8 – Whitely
Herricks P.I.G..
12 - Herricks High School Agenda Book - Rules. Herricks UFSD, 2003. 20.
<http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/tinker.html>.
<http://www.aclu.org/StudentsRights/StudentsRights.cfm?ID=10323&c=156>
<http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=13913&c=87>.
21 - Dua, Karan, and Prachi Dua. "Herricks Council of PTAs Discusses Dress Code,
Halloween Incidents, and Other Issues." Herricks Highlander Dec. 2003: 6-7.
<http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?geo_id=01000US&ds_name=D
EC_2000_SF1_U&qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_QTP1&_lang=en&_sse=on
>.
<http://www.myschoolonline.com/folder/0,1872,7182-201932-4-
66764,00.html>.
26 - New York State School Report Card For Herricks High School. Mar. 2002. New
<http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/repcrd2002/overview/280409030008.pdf>.
ACLU: Judge Rules in Favor of Michigan Student’s Right to Wear Anti-War T-Shirt
<http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=13913&c=87>.
ACLU: VA Middle School Student with Blue Hair Allowed to Return to Class After
<http://www.aclu.org/StudentsRights/StudentsRights.cfm?ID=10323&c=156>
Dua, Karan, and Prachi Dua. "Herricks Council of PTAs Discusses Dress Code,
Halloween Incidents, and Other Issues." Herricks Highlander Dec. 2003: 6-7.
<http://www.myschoolonline.com/folder/0,1872,7182-201932-4-
66764,00.html>.
Herricks High School Agenda Book - Rules. Herricks UFSD, 2003. 1-23.
Herricks Union Free School District. Board of Education. Herricks Public Schools
<http://www.pta.org/aboutpta/presidentsmessage.asp>.
New York State School Report Card For Herricks High School. Mar. 2002. New York
<http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/repcrd2002/overview/280409030008.pdf>.
Pillalamarri, Akhilesh and Tina Wilson. "Say No to Dress Code." Editorial. Herricks
<http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?geo_id=01000US&ds_name=D
EC_2000_SF1_U&qr_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_QTP1&_lang=en&_sse=on
>.
"Sharing the Power." Comp. Peter Jacobsen. Nassau County: Education - Herricks
P.I.G..
<http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/tinker.html>.
<http://www.antonnews.com/illustratednews/2003/09/12/news/>.