Texas school district bans hooded clothing and dresses for most students, saying it will promote professionalism

The bans rapidly elicited a backlash from mother and father, college students and others who view the coverage as unnecessarily restrictive, prompting one highschool scholar to create a petition to “combat unreasonable costume code adjustments” introduced by the Forney Impartial College District (FISD).

The brand new coverage, which applies to all 18 of FISD’s faculties, prohibits clothes akin to hoodies, coats and jackets with hoods inside the varsity, and in addition forbids college students in grades 5 and above from carrying clothes, skirts or skorts.

The district emphasised in its announcement of the coverage change that the shift is meant to arrange college students to enter the office. It additionally mentioned the coverage offers FISD “a constructive and distinctive identification” and displays the “values of the colleges and group,” in accordance with an announcement and video launched by the district.

The video announcement printed by FISD lays out the district’s reasoning behind the brand new coverage and includes a voiceover from a scholar.

“I could also be just a little younger to grasp what professionalism means proper now, however the expertise I am studying are a necessary a part of being profitable in my future profession,” the scholar says. “Each occupation has a costume code, whether or not it is scrubs, a welding helmet or a chef’s apron. The best way I costume performs an vital function in skilled and security, each within the classroom and on the job website.”

If a scholar violates the costume code, they are going to be “given a possibility to right the issue at college,” the coverage says. If the violation isn’t corrected, the scholar could also be positioned beneath in-school suspension till the violation is mounted or till a mum or dad or different grownup brings the kid completely different clothes that matches the coverage, it says.

“A younger girl ought to be capable to select what she wears,” Derick Hollaman advised WFAA. “They should not be pressured to put on pants.”

“There are such a lot of vital future workforce expertise that we need to impart in our children as they head off to have a profitable future,” FISD Superintendent Justin Terry says within the announcement video, itemizing traits together with creativity, collaboration and “baseline employability expertise” like displaying as much as work on time, speaking positively with coworkers, and following the expectations of an employer.

The costume code is made to “enhance scholar vanity, bridge socio-economic variations amongst college students, and promote constructive conduct, thereby enhancing faculty security and enhancing the educational surroundings,” FISD mentioned in its assertion.