Florida School Uniforms
...co-workers seem similar, they are in actuality very different. This approach to future jobs and careers will give the students an advantage in being open minded with people. Can uniforms really make a difference in a child’s academic performance? Wouldn't uniforms infringe the child’s creativity and self expression? The "clothes don't make the child" right (Hempill A15)? Wrong. School uniforms can drastically reduce school violence and help a student to focus on school work. In 1996, President Clinton endorsed public school uniforms in his State of the Union Address (Atkins 42). This created controversy among some education critics across the country. Critics complain that uniforms will lessen children’s individualism and creativity, infringing students’ rights and hint of racism. I believe uniforms will put the student’s emphasis on schoolwork instead of dressing coolly, and they will help to lower school violence. The idea comes from a Californian elementary school in Long Beach. "In 1994, Long Beach became the country's first public school district to institute a mandatory uniform policy” (Atkins 42). The results were so promising that they lead to the President’s endorsement. The school saw a fifty-one percent drop in physical fights, a thirty-four percent drop in assaults and batteries, a fifty percent drop in weapons offenses, and a thirty-two percent drop in school suspensions (Mancini 65). All this in a time span of only one year. Proving that a child’s clothes does make a difference in school violence. In a time when school children are getting killed for designer jackets and shoes, uniforms are exactly what our children need (Mancini 63). Some classes can be disrupted several times, because one student was wearing another student’s rival gang’s colors causing outbursts and fights. This problem is one that occurs daily in big city schools, but a problem uniforms can help remedy. Uniforms eliminate gang clothing like baggy pants, belts with initials on the buckles, halter tops, or certain gang colored clothing items. The uniforms can also help to identify outsiders within a school. Drug dealers would have wear uniforms in order to be able to roam the school yard without being spotted. The uniforms can also help parents save money. A parent can pay anywhere from sixty to a hundred dollars for a pair of pants, forty to sixty dollars on a single shirt, and eighty to one hundred-fift...