School Uniforms Affecting Students

How do school uniforms affect students and their sense of belonging in a school environment?
Roughly 160,000 children miss school daily due to fear of attack and or intimidation by other students. Because everyone would be dressed the same, students would not be bullied because of their clothing (Emily Morton 1). Wearing the same type of dress can reduce peer pressure in schools by relieving the social pressures associate with fashion and personal taste (Education Minister Liz Constable). Dr. Viola Vaughan, principal at Southeast Halifax High School said that their school uniforms policy has done a lot for the students both academically and behaviorally. Thriftone V. Jones, president of the D.C. Congress of Parents and Teachers, told JET that

Student uniforms affect students and their sense of belonging in a variety of ways. Such as: preventing bullying, gang activity, and student discipline. In 1933 the Will Rogers Middle School in Long Beach, California, instituted a uniform dress code. The school had been plagued with graffiti and students in gang style clothing. In an effort to improve the quality of education for Will Rogers’s students, parents and faculty voted to implement the uniform policy… As the policy was implemented the teachers noticed a different a different attitude in the school; the students were calmer and more polite. Parents was pleased with the program and felt that the children were safer in uniforms because they would not be mistaken as gang members (Barbarosh). A 1999 Education World article by Glori Chaika reported a significant drop in gang violence in Chicago schools that adopted school uniforms. Similarly, in a 2003 Education and Urban Society article, Kathleen Wade and Mary Stafford reported that teachers at schools with uniforms perceived lower levels of gang presence than teachers at schools with no uniforms. After introducing uniforms, the Birmingham, Ala. schools reported a drop in weapon and drug incidents, and Houston schools noted a

He said students in gangs have adapted to the new dress code, blending in with the schools’ students populations. A third argument for uniforms and dress code is that they can help curb school violence associated with gang-identified clothing. President Clinton has often spoken about this. In his 1996 State of the Union Address, Clinton advocated uniforms to “make public schools more orderly centers of learning and safer sanctuaries for children.” A number of schools took his advice and implemented dress codes to stem gang recruitment and criminal activities. If certain colors and styles distinguish one gang from another, they reasoned, banning that clothing could stymie gang activities on school grounds. And there have been result: Administrators in Long Beach, California, for example, report that school crime has been reduced by 76 percent since uniforms have been