Bill would require public school uniforms

Monday, Nov. 17, 2008 | 10:39 a.m.

CARSON CITY – All public school students will be wearing uniforms next year, if state Sen. Bob Coffin has his way.

“We’ve got to get the kids’ egos in check,” says Coffin, D-Las Vegas.

Discipline is a problem in the schools, he said, and the students “flaunt their appearance as a sign of disobedience.”

The bill he’s asked be drafted for the 2009 Legislature would apply to grammar, middle and high schools.

Some of the schools in Clark County require it, said Keith Rheault, state superintendent of public instruction. But a majority of parents at that school must approve it, he said.

No other state requires uniforms statewide, Rheault said. “It would be somewhat unique.”

Coffin said he tried this 20 years ago and could not get it passed. Since then, the discipline problem has escalated.

“Schools who have tried this find it successful,” he said.

The schools could design the uniform in their school colors. And buying these uniforms would be cheaper for parents than some of the expensive jeans and shirts they now purchase, he said. And there would be no stigma for the student, as there now for not wearing certain clothes.

There’s a saying that “Clothes make the man” and that is in part true, said Coffin.

Discussion: 19 comments so far…

By thebs

11/17/08 at 11:46 a.m.

Suggest removal

A solution in search of a problem, some might say.
By RickHLV

11/17/08 at 3:10 p.m.

Suggest removal

Let me see if I understand this thinking:

Although some parents are less and less involved in their childrens lives, and discipling a child has become taboo, uniforms will fix the problem?

I can recall a day when my Sons were in elementary school, and they were anxiously awaiting my arrival at home from work to tell me of the revelations of their day at school. They informed their Mother and I that they were told that if they were ever struck at home by their parent, they should advise their teacher, or even call 911. In thier young minds, despite rarely even being spanked, it was a form of being struck, and we would not be allowed to do this.

And what of the parent that so vigorously defends their "Perfect Little Angel" when a Teacher sends them out of class to the Deans office, or Principal, for misbehaving? Teachers typically do not disrupt a class and take the time to send a student out of class for being well behaved. Yet in todays litigious society, schools are so fearful of being sued, they would rather acquiesce to the misbehaving child than risk a lawsuit, hence undermining the teachers authority in the classroom.

Great thinking, I'm sure putting Kids in uniforms will fix the problem.
By vendingmachine

11/17/08 at 4:27 p.m.

Suggest removal

Great idea, Bob. And when you're done putting every kid in a uniform, I'm sure there are some deck chairs on a sinking ship you could rearrange.
By is_it_showing

11/17/08 at 5:26 p.m.

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I'm a parent who doesn't care either way. There are dress codes and uniforms in the working world, I don't really see the problem with it in schools too. It's no big deal either way.

As a parent, I see the only problem being that i now have to provide out of school clothes AND uniforms. It doesn't save me money, it makes me spend more.

My son is 5 and in Kinder. He's very mature and always dresses "cool". When i asked him what he would like - uniforms or everyone in their own clothing - he picked uniforms. He said that it would make it so people weren't worried about not having cool clothes and kids wouldn't be distracted by who wore what. From the mouth of a 5-year old....

The schools should do an annonymous vote in the schools to see what students would actually prefer. Then the adults/govt. should make the final and ultimate decisions.
By johnevegas

11/18/08 at 4:49 a.m.

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"...buying these uniforms would be cheaper for parents than some of the expensive jeans and shirts they now..."

Hey, Einstein, they can't where the uniforms everywhere, like the jeans, and almost NOBODY is buying expensive jeans these days.
By azsk8fan

11/18/08 at 10:22 a.m.

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Uniforms might be a big help and a definite improvement in some of the clothes kids are allowed to go to school in (the parents must be blind). Boys thinking they are so cool with their rear-end half exposed, girls in their daisy dukes and halter tops - let them all put on a uniform - kinda hard to act like a bad-ass cool-jerk in a shirt and tie - maybe they would start to take school more seriously. It's unbelievable what some parents allow their kids to wear these days and then they wonder when things start to go wrong.......
By sheeps

11/18/08 at 4:39 p.m.

Suggest removal

"Hey, Einstein, they can't where the uniforms everywhere, like the jeans, and almost NOBODY is buying expensive jeans these days."

Go to any school EVERYBODY has the expensive jeans.
By johnevegas

11/18/08 at 6:42 p.m.

Suggest removal

Everybody has the OPTION being the key point. To mandate uniforms for already strapped families is quite another.

Have kids? Notice how the grow year after year?

Who is asking for this, btw? Anyone but this one guy?
By daftchemicals

11/19/08 at 5:55 a.m.

Suggest removal

I find this APPALLING that this man would go to great lengths to make a bad situation even worse.

Please tell us how an article of clothing will stop truancy, raise test scores, make kids more focused, or do their homework more often?

Clothing is not the issue in schools. Kids will still get teased for having glasses, different hair, freckles, height, weight, speech impediment, a gap in their teeth, or something even as trivial as their name. All this has been shown on a website called People Ending Discrimination On Looks
( http://www.pedolgroup.com )

Maybe if the school budgets weren't being slashed more frequently than a Linens N Things Going Out Of Business sale, we would have more morale in schools. It's quite difficult to have extra pep in your step when you realize that nobody is doing anything to help you.

You can slap a uniform on a piece of coal. You still have a piece of coal.
By azsk8fan

11/19/08 at 7:36 a.m.

Suggest removal

There really is something to be said for "Dress for Success".......even at work people tend to take their jobs a whole more seriously when dressed appropriately as opposed to wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Kids might tease about a lot of various things so why not eliminate that which can be eliminated.
By ice56461973

11/19/08 at 10:58 a.m.

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If you think that by changing a students clothing that you are going to fix their discipline problems you are sadly mistaken. The discipline issues start at home, and if their is such a disicpline issue with students in school then maybe if you get the parents invovled to curtail the situation then maybe there would not be any problems. If the state wants to change all public schools to uniforms then the state needs to figure out how they are going to pay for the uniforms without passing the cost to the parents of students. If parents were not afraid to discipline there kids then we may not have problems with the students in the schools. Everyone always wants to blame someone else for the problems at hand. The clothes that students wear are not the problem, its the fact that most parents are afraid to discipline their children do to the fact that we are being told that its cruel. I got news for you my parents were smacked as children, I was smacked as a child and I have raised my children the same way and I have no issues with my children being disobediant in school and guess what they wear all those nice clothes that so called cause discipline issues.

I am sick and tired of hearing that the clothes are the issue. If there are problems get the parents invovled plain and simple.
By redferret

11/19/08 at 11:15 a.m.

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I agree ice. As a former teacher, I saw how kids play teachers off against parents. Of course when you tell mom/dad that junior was mouthing off in class, the kid starts to cry. And of course, mom and dad believe junior over the authority figure. While there are some teachers with axes to grind against certain students, the vast majority don't. Parents need to LISTEN to what teachers say goes on in school. Back them up, otherwise kids see the disdain the parents have for the teacher and learn to do the same. Monkey see, monkey do.
By Journey

11/19/08 at 12:05 p.m.

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Having grown up in school uniforms, I love the idea! The next best thing would be to have boys on one campus and girls on another.
By azsk8fan

11/19/08 at 12:36 p.m.

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You can't honestly believe the uniforms would cost more than the clothes these kids buy these days. We wore uniforms in Catholic school and even with a growing child the uniform lasted 2 yrs. It was a heck of a lot cheaper to buy each kid a couple uniforms that are well made and lasted a couple years than to buy one years worth of junk jeans and t-shirts.
By stevem

11/19/08 at 12:59 p.m.

Suggest removal

the uniform for girls should be a catholic schoolgirl skirt and stripper heels. you might as well prepare them early for their future career, huh?

please.

our schools are an embarrassment.
By RickHLV

11/19/08 at 1:13 p.m.

Suggest removal

azsk8fan, I believe you miss the point of additional costs. Parents will still have to buy the Jeans and shirts for the time the kids are not in school. I doubt very much that while you had the honor of attending Catholic school, you wore your uniform any longer than the time it took you to run into the house after school and throw on your "normal" jeans and t-shirt to go outside and hang with your friends. So the additional cost is that of the uniforms in ADDITION to the cool jeans and t-shirts. And besides, there are still an abundance of issues in the discipline arena which would not be fixed by a mere change of apparel for those with delinquent tendencies.
By daftchemicals

11/19/08 at 6:47 p.m.

Suggest removal

Azsk8fan,

As I stated previously, a school uniform WILL be more expensive than regular clothes.

Thanks to RickHLV, my first point was already proven.

The second point is, when school districts & cities go to mandatory uniforms (with no opt out), they usually have only one or two uniform companies where the kids can buy clothes from.

This means that instead of buying a shirt from Target for $8.44, or a shirt from Savers for $2.99, you MUST pay $21.95 for a student's shirt from Land's End! Not to mention if they require the logo embroidered on the shirt (another $5-$7 each. You think the school's don't check where you bought them from? Think again! Kids DO get sent home for "Non-compliant brand shirt" - even though the shirt looks exactly the same as the others!

www.aprod.org and www.pedolgroup.com are just two great examples of how mandatory school uniforms do not work.
By daftchemicals

11/19/08 at 8:51 p.m.

Suggest removal

Btw, we need to contact Sen Coffin's office and let him know we do not approve of this debacle. He needs to put this idea in a coffin!

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