Arguments Against School Uniforms

Abstract
This paper is about the issue of school uniforms and whether or not for schools (K-12) to require them. I analyzed three strong arguments from both sides of the issue. The side advocating uniforms argued that school uniforms keep students focused, which may lead to an improvement of grades. Advocates state uniforms deter students from crimes and save money for parents by relieving parents of the pressure of buying new clothes for every school year. The other side of the issue against uniforms in schools argue that uniforms threaten and infringe on student’s freedom of expression by requiring students to wear the uniforms with consequences if not hearkened. The opposition to uniforms also presented a study where the students oppose
“It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." (Tinker v. Des Moines) In 1969, the United States Supreme Court ruled schools could not censor student actions unless the action is clearly unreasonable and would disrupt school activities. Student actions include dressing themselves. Uniforms impose a rule on dress code, not allowing students to wear their clothing of preference. This case is widely used as evidence when arguing against schools requiring uniforms. In 1970, the case of Richards v. Thurston, the courts ruled, “conventional standard of appearance… does not seem a justifiable part of the educational process (Richards v. Thurston). Translated, schools cannot discipline a student for unjustifiable characteristics, including appearances. Clothing is vital in expressing one’s self and by having schools impose dress-code rules restricts that
The 2012 study conducted by the University of Nevada found that ninety percent of seventh and eighth graders did not like wearing school uniforms. In a 2007 poll done in Maryland, parents and instructors said yes to uniforms. Eighty-eight percent of students voted no in the same poll. If students are forced to do something they personally do not enjoy, efforts will drop and often, the children may act rebellious. In Long Beach, the first district in the United States to mandate school uniforms, seventy-six percent of the middle school students stated that the uniforms did not help them academically. Eighty-one percent of the same students said the uniforms did not reduce fights, countering the fifty percent of reduced fights reported in the same study by the