Dear Future President,

Imagine sitting in a classroom completely focused on the lesson (well as much as an average student can be) when all of the sudden your teacher tells you stand up and report to the disciplinary office; due to a uniform breakage over an untucked shirt. This is what many students in schools with uniforms face, this may seem like an extreme for something that could be fixed in 5 seconds but apparently it is something that requires being sent to the office. Though there may not be a too severe punishment like silent lunch or a demerit (depending on the type of student you) for example but they can also range to an in school or out of school suspension depending on the severeness of the breakage.

A Great example where a punishment went too far is; “In Oct. 2013, students at Friendly High School in Prince George's County, MD, were not allowed to wear pink shirts to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As a result, 75 students received in-school suspensions for breaking the school's uniform restrictions.” this caused many students to lose a learning opportunity for supporting and trying to raise awareness for a legitimate cause. This is one of the main reasons that uniforms should be banned from schools. Just imagine since this is such a main problem how many similar scenarios there are out there, and this is just one example of where school dress can impact learning opportunities.

To fix missed learning opportunities for uniform breakage I would propose a reasonably structured dress code that instead of receiving a demerit or other punishment you would get two warnings before there would be some sort of mild punishment such as, silent lunch or a note going home informing their legal guardians and asking the to please review the dress code reminding them that there will some type of disciplinary punishment for every time they break dress code. This will help students express their creative view in a safe and reasonable way.

While you may be thinking what about the decreasing in bullying rates while students are wearing uniforms. That is actually a false theory that someone created to support uniforms, in fact bullying is known to increase when uniforms are installed. For example, the most violent attacks are known to increase by 14 attacks per year. That's not all even just disciplinary actions rose by 12%. This is yet another reason for uniforms to be removed from schools.

Therefore as you can see uniforms are a disruption to the learning environment, not to mention the fact that bullying rates can increase. Also, many of the ideas that are there to support uniforms are false theories so that manufacturers can make a greater profit and so people who want uniforms can give some reasons that sound legitimate but really are false theories. Therefore uniforms for students should be banned and a new more up to date dress code should be applied.

Sincerely,

Spencer V.D.