Safety Might Be the Hottest Fashion Trend

Every school has a Mrs. Dvorak, which is to say that every school has an “attendance secretary,” a kind of watch commander who sits in the main office behind a helpful name plate. It’s their job to field questions, minimize chaos, maximize order. At Santa Clarita’s La Mesa Junior High, this means an active role in the new clothing police.

So when 13-year-old Shaun Hicks showed up for school this week in the right pants but the wrong shirt, it was Mrs. Dvorak--Melanie to friends--who enforced the rules.

“They’re, like, nobody wants to wear these things!” Shaun complained as he tucked in an official school T-shirt. “ Everybody thinks they look dorky!” “Well,” Mrs. Dvorak said, smiling, “I think you look very nice.”

*

If you’re in seventh grade, grown-ups tend to be clueless. Their idea of “nice” rarely conforms to your idea of “cool.” Teen fashion gets its cues from pop music: the baggy clothes of rap and hip-hop, the black “hesher” look inspired by heavy metal, the tattered jeans and flannel of grunge. In their conservative ensembles of white, black and taupe, La Mesa’s students could pass for Pat Boone fans.

Those dorky, dweebish feelings should pass quickly, however, because they’re all in this together. And maybe someday they’ll find solace in the knowledge that they were at the forefront of a new fashion trend, given the adoption this year of a state law that sanctions uniforms in public schools.

To the dismay of some civil libertarians, uniforms may appear at a public campus near you, as more educators and parents look to an old parochial school strategy in an effort to impose a sense of order.

Uniforms, educators point out, can do something as simple as help teachers keep track of students during field trips. Students, they say, will be less distracted by fashion and peer pressure, and more focused on classroom assignments.

The biggest selling point for parents, however, is campus safety. School officials would have an easy time identifying outsiders on school grounds. The elimination of baggy clothing would make it tougher for students to bring contraband on campus. By discouraging the “gangsta” style, educators and parents hope to minimize the various effects of gang culture.

To those who worry about the cost, La Mesa Principal Rochelle Neal says parents would actually spend less on uniforms than they would on clothes at the mall. To those who say the uniforms muzzle self-expression, Neal says students can focus more on expressing themselves in classroom assignments and campus activities.

“I don’t see any harm,” Neal says. “I see only good.”

More skeptical views have come from predictable sources. State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) predicts “inevitable friction” between parents and children. The American Civil Liberties Union is monitoring the implementation of uniform policies at schools in Long Beach, Ventura County and elsewhere. Liz Schroeder, an ACLU associate director, says that often school officials “are not forthcoming” in advising parents of a provision in the state law that enables them to opt out of the uniform policy.

Schroeder suggests that such policies may not achieve their purported aims. In some school districts, educators talk about the danger of gangs, but then implement a uniform policy only at elementary schools. “It’s difficult to see how uniforms prevent gang problems in elementary schools, when elementary schools aren’t prone to having gangs,” Schroeder says. “It would be more logical in junior high and high school.”

*

No gang troubles in elementary school? Shaun Hicks’ mother, Pamela Hardine, tells a story that should remind us grown-ups that childhood isn’t what it used to be, and explains why she thinks her boy looks so nice in his new La Mesa uniform, much nicer than when he wore those baggy pants to his old elementary school in North Hollywood.

A few facts are relevant. Understand that Shaun is black, and understand that he’s big for his age. He looks 16 now, and, as his mother puts it, “he looked 14 when he was 10.”

Like many kids, Shaun innocently talked his mom into buying him the baggy pants that looked so cool. “I was so naive,” she said. “I figured, this is great, because he’d grow into these pants. Boy, he’s in style and we’re saving money.”

Looking back, she figures it all fit a pattern: Shaun’s size, race and clothing made the older kids, the gang kids, take an interest. He told about an argument with a boy who brandished a gun and threatened to kill him. That’s when Shaun’s folks figured it was time to move out of the San Fernando Valley, to these new suburbs beyond the old suburbs, hoping to distance themselves from the big, bad city.

And that’s why Shaun’s mom thinks his new school clothes don’t look dorky at all.