Should boys wear earrings?
By Angie Thompson
TIFTON — The result of a survey on the Tift County School System’s dress code revealed that teachers and faculty find the current code too cumbersome and the enforcement of it too inconsistent from school to school.
Helene Dutcher, an assistant principal at Tift County High School, told the Tift County Board of Education Tuesday night that representatives of each school had met to discuss the current dress code. She presented board members with results of surveys and focus group discussions that questioned and included students, parents, teachers and other faculty and committee recommendations of a proposed “dress standard” for students and teachers from those findings.
“There is concern at the high school and other schools that the choices the students and faculty are making are not making a favorable impact on the learning environment,” Dutcher said.
Dutcher said the proposal is “meant to be simple so a teacher can look at a glance” and decide whether a student’s dress is appropriate.
“It is of great importance that every principal be consistent in enforcement,” said board member John Smith.
According to the survey’s findings, parents of children in kindergarten through sixth grade were more in favor of school uniforms than elementary school parents. Those in favor expressed their belief that uniforms might prevent problems associated with sagging pants, gangs, short skirts and shorts, bullying and identification of lower socioeconomic status by the type of clothing students wore. The same group of parents supported better educating the public to the dress code standards.
In grades 7-12, 41 percent of the students surveyed said the current code is too strict. Students also expressed their concern that enforcement of the dress code is gender biased in that boys had to tuck their shirts in and girls did not and boys can’t wear earrings while girls can. Only 10 percent of the students favored uniforms while 66 percent favored the current dress code with modifications.
Most of the board’s conversation about the dress code surrounded the issue of whether boys should be allowed to wear earrings. The survey indicates that 69 percent of teachers in grades 7-12 who completed the survey support allowing both male and females students to wear earrings while 39 percent were opposed to males wearing earrings. Some of that 39 percent expressed adamant concerns about males being allowed to wear earrings. The results of parents surveyed were similar to teachers with 65 percent supporting allowing both males and females to wear earrings and 35 percent against males being allowed to wear them.
Some board members and Superintendent Patrick Atwater said they didn’t believe boys should be able to wear earrings to school.
Chairperson Rita Griffin said that some of the school system’s responsibility is to train students for future employment. Atwater said he had made calls to several businesses and governmental agencies and found that policies at those businesses prohibit male employees from wearing earrings.
“If you are basing everything else on the survey, why not base this on the survey?” questioned member Betty Parson.
Attorney John Reinhardt said that it was his belief that if someone contested the fact that prohibiting male students from wearing earrings was discriminatory, “it would be difficult to show that a male wearing a diamond in his ear lobe is disruptive.”
Smith moved and the board approved tabling the proposal until it was “fine tuned.” Atwater indicated the board would be presented the dress code with recommended revisions during its July meeting.