No Uniforms At Bradford Middle School

To: Members of the Bradford County School Board

We are concerned citizens of Bradford County who believe that elected officials should not restrict the rights of those who put them in office without reason. We believe that basic choices such as what to wear are the rights of individual citizens. We do not oppose a modest dress code in schools. However, we oppose restrictions in the type and fabric of clothing with no rational link to behavioral or learning outcomes. We have seen no rationale for why polo shirts are more conducive to learning or behavior than t-shirts. We have seen no proof that khaki material affects school outcomes over jeans.

We feel that we were taken advantage of and lied to by the board. We were patient when the board established the uniform policy at the last minute without input from the community before the 2008-2009 school year. Parents insisted that children wear uniforms so the board could gather data for one year regarding educational outcomes as a pilot study. We are disappointed that the board wasted time and financial resources of families during that year, gathering no data nor looking at available outcomes to make the decision to continue the uniform policy an additional year. We see no need to conduct pilot studies in our county when empirical studies show that, student uniforms have no direct effect on substance use, behavioral problems or attendance ... [and] [a] negative effect of uniforms on student academic achievement (Brunsma, D. L., & Rockquemore, K. A. (1998). "The Effect of Student Uniforms on Attendance, Behavior Problems, Substance Use, and Academic Achievement." The Journal of Educational Research).

We are troubled that the board ignored a parent survey that showed a two-thirds vote against uniforms and the recommendation of the superintendent to end the uniform policy. We are also concerned that board members would have us think that dress code violations were a major problem at the middle school prior to the uniform policy, when in reality only 13 referrals were written at the middle school for dress code violations in 2007-2008. We recognize that after the 2008-2009 school year, a mere 3\% reduction in total referrals at the middle school shows that uniforms had virtually no effect at reducing problem behavior.

For the reasons stated above, we demand that the board eliminate the uniform policy at Bradford Middle School for the 2009-2010 school year and instead establish a modest dress code policy that can be effectively enforced by parents and school administrators.