School uniforms can help improve discipline in schools, and save parents money and time, or they can curb students’ creative expression. Those are some of the early arguments for and against a uniformed dress code in the Indian River School District.
There will likely be several more arguments opposing and supporting the idea as the district embarks on further discussions about the possibility of introducing such a policy through a recently-formed school uniform committee.
“I think it basically improves discipline in schools,” said Dr. Donald Hattier, a school board member and chairman of the uniform committee, about uniforms. “They’ll be able to concentrate on school itself. You’re not there for fashion, you’re there to learn.”
Indian River Superintendent Dr. Susan Bunting would not comment directly on the possibility of introducing a dress code, saying that planning for one is in its earliest stages.
The still-very-preliminary school uniform proposal is calling for pants, blue or khaki colored, with a logo-less collared shirt, and is similar to dress codes already implemented at Southern Delaware School of the Arts and in the Woodbridge School District.
In Woodbridge, shorts and skirts are acceptable as long as they adhere to a length requirement and sweatshirts must be hood-less and accompanied by a turtleneck or collared shirt underneath.
Dr. Kevin Carson, Woodbridge’s superintendent, said that he can not singularly attribute improved testing and discipline statistics to the dress code — implemented district-wide in 2005 — but he believes it to be a contributing factor.
“Do I think that the climate in our schools has improved because of school uniforms? I absolutely do,” said Carson, who visited the committee during one of its first meetings to talk about Woodbridge’s program. “It’s a great equalizer. You don’t have a big distinction between the haves and the have-nots.”
Carson also cited increased school spirit, a greater semblance of order in classrooms, and savings in time and money for parents as points of success for the district’s dress code.
“A parent was able to go out and buy two, maybe three outfits for a cost of (one pair) designer jeans,” Carson said.
Catherine Peterson, a mother of two Indian River School District children — one child in SDSA and the other at Lord Baltimore Elementary — said she already knows the savings a school uniform policy could provide. Her 11-year-old son’s SDSA uniforms save time in the morning because they do not have to pick out clothes, and they save money because he does not need dozens of different, up-to-date outfits for school.
“I am in big favor of uniforms,” Peterson said. “They’re wonderful. Every parent I’ve had a conversation with has been in favor of it.”
Nick Hensler, a 15-year-old freshman at Indian River High School who stood by a car with two friends in the student parking lot after school Tuesday, felt differently.
“I feel it doesn’t let me express myself. When I go to school, I want to express myself through my clothes,” Hensler said. “If I have to wear a uniform, it makes me feel as if I’m the same as everyone else.”
Standing with Hensler on Tuesday, 14-year-old Indian River freshman Zoe Jurusik said she understood reasons to pursue the school uniform policy but did not think it would be popular among students.
“I’d be for it in a sense that it would save parents money,” she said. “But I don’t think kids would be for it because they like to wear what they want to wear.”
Carson said he saw similar apprehension on the part of parents and students in 2003 when his administration first introduced the idea and later implemented it for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students that fall. Most negative opinions about the dress code later subsided, though, he said.
“I had some parents concerned it might stifle creativity,” Carson said. “We haven’t found that to be the case at all. It’s been a good transition. We’re glad we did it.”