09-23-2008, 05:42 PM
Theatre of the absurd. Go to any middle school and see for yourself. Dress code DOES NOT stop the sagging of the pants nor does it stop gang colors. Look at the "colors" the girls wear in their hair, the belts and buckles under the long shirts, the back packs, purses, or man bags the kids carry, shoe laces, shoe color, the layered tops the girls and boys wear UNDER their dress code shirts. You're kidding yourself if you think dress code solves any problem in our district related to the education of our students.
How about some REAL statistics? What happened to the student/parent/staff safety survey conducted last year on line? What about the delineated referral information (entered into a discipline referral database)? Why take the time to input that info, but then not make it available to the people that work here. ALL the people. Not just the administration (district or building) or a select few suck ups in a building that the principal deems are appropriately acceptable 'team players'. The caste system is is alive and thriving in the WPS system.
Fighting is a huge problem in district. Is it gang related? Who the hell knows. The kids aren't going to say so. They know the discipline handbook better than we do when it comes to that!! Fighting vs gang related activities...of course they're going to say it's NOT gang related. (Just like the shooting behind the BP gas station at Grand and Jackson a few weeks ago, no one is talking, so no one is charged. It'll be classified as a random drive by in the long run)
We have street smart kids, legacy kids, born and raised into the the gang life style. They're not going to give up their affiliation or colors any time soon. Dress codes won't help.
We need to STOP looking at things like dress code, and start looking at HOW to educate within the system/community we have before us.
How about some REAL statistics? What happened to the student/parent/staff safety survey conducted last year on line? What about the delineated referral information (entered into a discipline referral database)? Why take the time to input that info, but then not make it available to the people that work here. ALL the people. Not just the administration (district or building) or a select few suck ups in a building that the principal deems are appropriately acceptable 'team players'. The caste system is is alive and thriving in the WPS system.
Fighting is a huge problem in district. Is it gang related? Who the hell knows. The kids aren't going to say so. They know the discipline handbook better than we do when it comes to that!! Fighting vs gang related activities...of course they're going to say it's NOT gang related. (Just like the shooting behind the BP gas station at Grand and Jackson a few weeks ago, no one is talking, so no one is charged. It'll be classified as a random drive by in the long run)
We have street smart kids, legacy kids, born and raised into the the gang life style. They're not going to give up their affiliation or colors any time soon. Dress codes won't help.
We need to STOP looking at things like dress code, and start looking at HOW to educate within the system/community we have before us.