The NO More Dress Code In CMSD Schools

We the students and or parents of students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District would like your attention on an ongoing issue in the school system. School Dress code is an unnecessary burden on students and parents alike, and here's why.

The CMSD has been taking things a little too far ever since Dr. Eugene Sanders Became the CEO of the district. The implementation of dress code for all schools is ridiculous and has no place in school especially when you consider the facts. The same facts that the CMSD has been twisting to their favor.

1. School unifroms do NOThelp students academically perform better. The very idea of that is outrageous. Clothes dont make the student, a student is shaped by their teachers ( which by the way dont have a dress code ). And by the way, we learn just the same in a t-shirt and jeans as we would in a collared shirt and khakis.
2. "School uniforms are cheaper than regular clothes." This is entirely untrue. You're trying to say that buying and entirely new wardrobe of uniform clothes is CHEAPER than an already pre-existing wardrobe of clothing that students already have in their closets. Even buying the clothes new is cheaper than buying new uniform clothes. The average basic t-shirt cost $4 while a a basic polo shirt cost on average of $6. uniform pants can run you anywhere from $15-$20. for that price, you could walk in to your local wal-mart and pick up 2 pairs of jeans.
3.
" Uniforms make it easier to identify which students belong to a school, and easier to identify an intruder." Another blatant lie. Most Schools allow more than one color choice so keeping track of which student belongs where goes right out the window. And that thing about identifying an intruder is also dumb because couldn't an intruder just come into the school wearing dress code?

If that wasn't bad enough, there's a bunch of regulations on how the dress code must be followed. "All shirts must be tucked in","Belts must be worn for all slacks, shorts, skirts, and skorts with belt loops." I raise this question, WHY? It's really uncomfortable to go 7 hours like that. Then, the dumbest part of it all, is that theres are teachers who suspend students for not following the dress code. even for something as small as an untucked shirt. Does that make any sense, the student wakes up early in the morning to show up to school but gets sent home on average of 3-5 days because of how they're dressed. Then by the time the student comes back to school, they're behind on their lessons and find it nearly impossible to catch up. Then the schools complain theres such poor attendence or poor test scores. It's the schools faults for suspending the students.

All we as students are asking for is the ability to express individuality, as for the attendance in general, students would be more likely to come to school if they were allowed to wear what they wanted. Your choice of clothing usually reflects your mood for the day, and if we're stuck to only 2 shirt colors and 2 kinds of pants, things get bland quickly. Maybe the schools should start focusing less on what we look like and more on what we're learning. Maybe the school district should start getting rid of some of the dead beat teachers that roam the schools without a care in the world as to what's going on in the classroom. Maybe they should realize just how much more harm they are doing to us by suspending us so often than if they would just let us come to school dressed how we want.

Of course, all of this is within good reason, we're not asking to come to school in half shirts, and biker shorts, we're just asking for a way to further express our individuality.