Why Do Dress Codes Reduce School Violence?

Introduction Since the days of the Puritans, laws and rules have been made concerning what is moral, or safe and best for society. Although dress codes are increasing in popularity throughout the United States, educators do not uniformly agree upon the benefits produced by these regulations (king, 1998). There is no certainty that dress codes reduce school violence or improve academic achievement. Furthermore, strict dress codes, which school officials justify because they are aimed at preventing gang violence, have been adopted in several areas that do not have gang problems, undermining some school official's justifications (Wilson, 1998). This paper will explore some of the issues that effect the debate as to whether or not school dress
Surveys were sent out to patents as well and 486 parents responded. Bodine randomly selected 30 parents to interview as well as 14 children making sure to include all the ethnic backgrounds. Bodine interviewed 39 participants face to face and nine parents and one student by phone. Additional information was used from local and national press; from interviews with teachers, administrators, students and parents. The results of this study came in two concerns one from the public and the other from the schools representatives. The parents of the students were concerned about the economic disparity to the families of the children having to afford the special clothing for school. They were also concerned about social exclusion to children due to a different dress style. Schools were primarily concerned with the ability of families to afford the clothing required but relished the thought of all the students being on equal ground and easily identifiable. Although both parents and school officials agreed that uniforms may improve the security of the school environment it just doesn’t leave the students free to just be themselves so, there were more adverse opinions than positive opinions on the
The results of the study indicated there are eight areas of concern; school violence, availability of firearms, parental responsibility, media responsibility, social service, anger management, attitudes toward violence, and school uniforms. Majority of the teachers felt that school uniforms would help to alleviate the situation, not only changing the attitudes of many of the students but enabling school officials to target potential problems. With the current baggy style of clothing students have the ability to smuggle illegal drugs and weapons into the school environment without