School Board to consider new policies for dress

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

A proposed revision to the Clark County School District's dress code policy would require that a majority of parents approve stricter demands ahead of time.

The revision, which will be considered by the School Board next week, calls for administrators to show that "50 percent plus one" of a school's families support the switch to a dress code that is more strict than the district-wide regulation.

Seventeen schools would also be allowed to continue for the rest of the academic year upholding the stricter dress requirements devised by individual principals, although parents would have to be surveyed for the policies to carry over to the 2005-06 academic year.

"It's not fair to ask those schools to change horses in mid-stream," said Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction for the district.

Under the current regulation, in order for schools to join a pilot study of mandatory uniforms, administrators had to show a 51 percent return rate on surveys with 70 percent of parents in favor of the policy. That equaled just 35 percent of the total school population, Orci said.

"The new proposal is actually more strict," Orci said. "There's a higher threshold to be met in terms of community support."

District Regulation 5131 also gives principals the authority to ban certain clothing items that are deemed distracting to the educational process. Some administrators have used that leeway to establish stricter dress code requirements than those set down in the district-wide regulation.

At some schools the requirements are referred to as "standard school attire" while others opted for "Dress for Success" or "academic attire."

The differences between the three types of dress codes appear to be minimal. At Mojave High School, "Dress for Success" means collared shirts and bottoms in any solid color or fabric other than denim. At Liberty High School, the first campus in the district to adopt "standard school attire," students must wear red, white or blue solid-color shirts with khaki-colored bottoms.

"We want to reduce the confusion by only talking about standard student attire," Orci said Thursday. "It's one concept and it has flexibility in the requirements as listed in the policy."

Schools that choose not to survey parents may still institute standard student attire policies but must offer families the choice of opting out, Orci said. Students at those schools could not be penalized for not participating, Orci said.

The proposed regulation change doesn't help Kim Jacobs, a Liberty junior who has steadfastly refused to follow the campus dress code demands. Jacobs has been suspended for a total of 15 days after showing up at school wearing jeans and T-shirts bearing messages and insignias associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Her father, Donald Jacobs, said he was given copies of his daughter's progress reports by the school this week showing she has earned A-plus marks on the assignments she has completed at home during her suspension. But her overall average is a failing grade because she has received zeroes in the areas of classroom participation and pop quizzes.

"Obviously her grades would be a lot higher if she were there every day," Jacobs said.

The Nevada ACLU is poised to file a lawsuit on behalf of the honor student, demanding that she be reinstated and her disciplinary record expunged.

"The claim that they have overwhelming parental support (for the stricter dress code policies) is bogus," Allen Lichtenstein, attorney for the Nevada ACLU. "The lack of candor is doing nothing but diminishing the respect parents and students have for the district."

Several School Board members have said they did not want students penalized for failing to comply with "Dress for Success" or "standard school attire" policies until they had a chance to review -- and potentially revise -- the regulation later this month.

An earlier draft of the revised regulation, obtained by the Sun as well as by some parents and community members, called for schools to have a 75 percent return on the surveys with 70 percent favorable responses. That equals 52.5 percent of the total school community.

Whether it's 50 percent plus one or 52.5 percent, the numbers are too low, said Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada ACLU.

"They're (the district) operating on the principle that if they have a threadbare majority it's OK to impose their will on the other 49.9 percent," Peck said. "They can play all the word and numbers games they want to, but the reality is this is a uniform policy and it has no place in our public schools."

Deanna Wright, a Clark County parent who has opposed the stricter dress code, said if the School Board does vote to change the policy it should take effect immediately and not exempt campuses for the remainder of the academic year.