Letter: Excellent reasons for dress policy

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004 | 9:10 a.m.

As a Liberty High School teacher, I must speak in favor of our supposedly controversial "standard attire" policy.

Critics say that under our policy, students are denied the right to express themselves. If anything, we have created a system that makes students work harder to express themselves.

By limiting what students wear, for example, students must rely on their judgement as to what constitutes "self-expression." They are forced to find nonsuperficial ways to make their voices heard. Our dress policy teaches students to look beyond the surface and truly respect one another's ideas and values.

We offer students the opportunity in each class to conduct curriculum-based seminars on every topic. One of the central tenets of these lessons is: "Think deeply about the ideas and values expressed in dialogue, examining the various perspectives with an open mind." Does that sound like suppression of free speech?

By creating limits, we teach students how to express themselves in more constructive ways than simply donning a T-shirt bearing a message endorsed by someone else.

While a dress policy may not have any proven correlation to higher test scores, consider that teachers in other schools are spending vast quantities of time dealing with students whose attire is against the basic Clark County School District dress code. At Liberty, we have more time to teach.

JAMES M. POFF