The School Board of Alachua County voted Tuesday night to implement a district-wide school uniform requirement for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Beginning in the fall, students will be required to wear uniforms consisting of solid-colored pants, shorts or skirts and a solid-colored shirt or blouse with a collar. The colors of the uniforms will be chosen by the individual schools.
The five-member board approved the plan in a 3-2 decision.
“The kids, unfortunately, are getting more and more outrageous with the clothes they wear,” school board chairwoman Virginia Childs said.
Students have been coming to school wearing slippers, pajama bottoms, baggy pants and overly revealing tops, she said.
“It’s very distracting for other people in the class to have that show going on,” she said.
Childs said the new policy will not only help students focus more on their studies, but she expects it will help alleviate bullying and peer pressure.
Tina Pinkoson, who voted against the uniform policy, said she was surprised it passed because she has gotten mostly negative feedback on the issue.
Pinkoson said it should be the parents’ responsibility to tell their children what to wear. She also said school uniforms will become a financial burden on the school district when it has to purchase the clothes for students who are unable to afford them.
“I don’t think that it has anything to do with the academic learning that’s going on in the schools,” she said. “There [are] bigger fish to fry, and we should be looking at those issues.”
Wiley Dixon, principal of Gainesville High School, said the seven high school principals in Alachua County sent a letter to the board recommending the policy not be approved.
The principals felt such a policy in high schools was unnecessary because there was never a problem with enforcing the old dress code, he said.
“We just felt that with young adults, they should be able to choose what they wear so long as it was within the school board policies,” he said.
