Uniform style: Coronado High will adopt policy of ‘standard school wardrobe’ next fall

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.

Coronado High School sophomore Gabbie Linder spends at least an hour deciding what to wear every morning, a fact that makes her friends giggle and her mother groan.

Her preparation time should be significantly reduced next fall, as Coronado switches to a "standard school wardrobe" for the 2004-05 academic year, Principal Monte Bay said.

The idea of a "school wardrobe" was first raised by Coronado students nearly two years ago, Bay said. After meetings with the student council and the school's parent advisory committee, the decision was finalized last week to move ahead, Bay said.

Coronado would be the first established Clark County high school to institute such a policy. Liberty High School opened this year with a school wardrobe requirement already in place.

Coronado and Liberty students may wind up being school fashion trend-setters.

Green Valley High School Principal Jeff Horn has talked to his school's parent advisory committee about adopting a school wardrobe, and they may try to make that change as early as next year. In the meantime, Horn has instructed his staff to ensure that students are following the district's existing dress code, including its limits on facial piercings, baggy pants and spaghetti-strap blouses.

Schools in other regions of the district have also been tackling dress code violations, although not to the degree occurring in the southeast. Steve McCoy, assistant superintendent of the northeast region, said there has been discussion about whether to have a campus wardrobe when the new Canyon Springs High School opens next year. It would make sense for the planned leadership and law academy to have a more stringent dress code similar to the attire donned by students in the travel and tourism program at Valley High School, McCoy said.

"We're open to thinking about it, but there would need to be discussions with parents, students and staff first," McCoy said. "Obviously we're not going to make any decisions prematurely."

The specifics of the wardrobe change at Coronado are still being hammered out, although it's expected to follow the standard set by nearby Liberty where students must wear khaki bottoms with solid-color shirts in red, white or blue.

The thought of trading in the tank top and floral skirt she wore Monday didn't thrill Linder.

"I like being able to express my individuality," Linder said Monday. "It seems like the students didn't really have a voice in deciding this. The good part is we still have this year to get used to it."

While Linder was trying to warm up to the idea, her mother had already found a seat on the wardrobe bandwagon.

"This is the best thing in terms of showing people where your priorities are when you come to school," said Monique Linder. "Is your focus on your education, or how you think you need to look to impress someone else?"

Last month Edward Goldman, superintendent of the district's southeast region which includes Coronado and Liberty, asked administrators to crack down on dress code violations such as facial piercings and midriff-baring shirts.

Goldman said Monday he supported Coronado's decision to implement a school wardrobe. While a mandatory uniform pilot study at five Henderson elementary schools required a favorable community survey and Clark County School Board vote, standard wardrobe policies do not face the same scrutiny, Goldman said.

"This is a decision made by site administrators using authority already allotted to them under existing district regulations," Goldman said. "Students have choices with the wardrobes, these are not uniforms."

But Allen Lichtenstein, attorney for the Nevada ACLU, said the line between "wardrobe" and "uniform" has clearly been crossed at Liberty.

"If you're telling a kid they have to wear khaki pants and shirts of a particular color that's obviously a uniform," said Lichtenstein, whose organization staunchly opposed the elementary school pilot study. "Telling kids to accept this premise, something obviously not true, is going to do more damage than any nonstandard attire possible could."

Lichtenstein said he would prefer to see the district focus on raising test scores and academic standards, rather than student attire.

"Instead of tackling the real problems they're wasting time on something that may make a few administrators feel good but has absolutely no effect on education," Lichtenstein said.

At Liberty, compliance with the dress code has been more than 95 percent since the start of the academic year, according to Assistant Principal Amy Rosar. But junior Mekayla King said she hears more gripes than favorable reviews.

"I don't think it's working at all," King said Monday. "If we have to wear it, they should just give us all uniforms and say we have to wear it. It's not fair to tell us what we have to wear and then make us go out and buy the clothes."

But Coronado junior Michael Middleton said he's looking forward to the switch to a standard wardrobe.

Middleton was decked out in a baby blue velour track suit with white stripes down the sides and a diamond stud decorating his earlobe on Monday.

The clothing required under the wardrobe policy "will be way cheaper," said Middleton, who added that he's spent at least $500 on clothing since the start of classes in August. "This way you can save your best stuff for the weekend instead of using it up for school."

And as a senior next year, Middleton knows his budget will be strained by other expenses, such as college applications, his letterman jacket and yearbook.

Adam Grafiada, a Coronado senior and student body president, said he respects the point of view of Bay and other administrators who see uniforms as a way of improving the overall school environment. But at the same time Grafiada said he empathizes with his peers who don't agree with a public high school having such a strict dress code.

"In some ways it takes away the freedom and the individuality of the whole school," Grafiada said.