Bye-Bye School Ties As Part of School Uniforms

Thursday 10th of September 2009 03:02:43 AM

Whether it began decades ago in great Britain or in the United States doesn’t matter. What does matter is the effect it is having on youth across the country…the school uniform has become delinquent.

School uniforms have a long history beginning with private schools and more recently moving into the public sector. Nevertheless, as more teens began to wear school uniforms they developed more ways to modify its pieces and parts.

The most easily modified component of the uniform is the school tie. Uniform dress codes stated in school manuals specify a Windsor knot or a four in hand. Students are coming to school with a wide variety of tie knots, and in some cases these knots are meant to be funny and in others they may very well involve a threat.

“Some of our students are wearing ties a different way every day, a class clown,” states Jesse Meads, a high school principal in East Tennessee. “On the other side of the coin we have an undesirable element trying to wear ties to show affiliation to a gang or group not allowed on campus.”

Meads is experiencing a problem faced by many principals and like others she has decided to deal with it by changing the school uniform. This year the students at her school will wear cotton polo shirts with the school mascot and initials over the right breast, khakis, a belt, and approved shoes. No more ties or items that can be misconstrued to represent gang involvement.

Cotton polo shirts have been a lifesaver for schools facing this problem with school uniforms. It has been easy to make the change, in most cases accomplished by a simple call to the school’s promotional clothing distributor. In addition, it does not require the parents to purchase an entire new uniform. They can still incorporate the pants and other items from the old uniform with the new polo shirts. Furthermore, new students will not have the added expenses of ties, button downs, and in some cases blazers.