Students Opposed to School Uniform Policy

This was a TV news segment presented by WFMY, a CBS affiliate in North Carolina. The air date was July 8th, 2007. The segment begins at 0:21 seconds.





Prominent arguments:

• School uniforms restrict students freedom and right to express their style
• School uniforms encourage students to conform and discourage them to challenge authority
• High School students are mature enough to have their side heard and make their own wardrobe choices
  

Characters quoted and what was left out:

A News Anchor and Reporter, Eric Spyva, introduced and narrated this segment on a controversial dress code (known as Standard Mode of Dress, or SMOD) being implemented at Reidsville Middle and High Schools. The WFMY broadcasters narrations seemed neutral, though the editor's choice of what comments to include and who to interview did have an impact on the ideologies expressed.

School leaders in Guilford County, a neighboring county, say that a Standard Mode of Dress (evidently already implemented in their district) had "a drastic impact on grades, behavior problems, and socio-economic boundaries." Details of this program and how the school leaders came to their positive conclusions were not specified.

Reidville high school student Chris Knight, dressed in a Jedi Knight costume out of protest, was then shown commenting at a board meeting. He had clearly separated the students from the board, referring to "we" versus "you" in his comments: "Shackled to a desk, we would see them fly as the eagles. You would have them conform, we would have them dare to question and if need be to defy." Throughout the segment, we do not hear opinions from board members who supported the SMOD. I doubt that they would have said that the intention was to "shackle students to their desks."

Students are also shown protesting on a busy road. Reidville senior Rebecka Inman was interviewed regarding her choice of clothing and was careful to use language to make her style choices very unintimidating. She pointed out her "regular t shirt" and "standard pair of Bermuda shorts." She was not interviewed (or if so, her comments were not included) regarding students wearing clothing that would be considered distracting or inappropriate for school. At the hearing, her argument focused around her maturity as a seventeen year old and her ability to make her own choices.

One parent who supported the uniform policy cited fighting with her daughter about appropriate choices as her main reasoning for wanting SMOD implemented. A man (presumably a member of the school board though he was not identified) was shown giving details on what the dress code would look like, however the positives and motivations behind the policy were not given. The school board was shown on tape many times however their comments were noticiably absent from the report.

At the end of the segment, the news anchor reported that the school board had voted 7-3 to rescind the policy.

Who was left out?

School Board members addressing why they had proposed the Standard Mode of Dress policy in the first place
Reidsville Middle and High School teachers

Reidsville Middle and High School principals and administrators

Students who supported the Standard Mode of Dress policy

Parents opposed to the Standard Mode of Dress policy

Child development specialists could have been interviewed to get expert opinions on adolescent needs regarding expression and choices.

People experienced with school uniform policies, such as:

• children who currently wear uniforms to school (such as private, parochial, pilot, or charter school children)
• parents of children who currently wear uniforms to school
• people who had done research on the effects of uniforms in schools