Bandana in School?

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Weird000000

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Anne Arundel County Public Schools (where I attend as a senior) has a dress code as follows:

"I. Students have the right and responsibility to choose their attire and to arrange their personal appearance in a manner which is healthy, safe, inoffensive and not disruptive to the educational process. Accordingly, students are prohibited from wearing clothing, hats, jewelry, bookbags, or other articles of personal
appearance which:
A. depict profanity, vulgarity, obscenity or violence;
B. promote use or abuse of tobacco, drugs or alcohol;
C. may create a health or safety hazard; or
D. may create a significant risk of a material and substantial disruption to the educational process or the operation of the school.

II. In addition, except in individual cases as approved by the principal of a school, the following specific items are not permitted:
A. bare feet;
B. hats, caps, hoods or other head wear except as required for health, safety, or religious purposes; and
C. clothing worn in such a manner so as to reveal underwear or bare skin between the upper chest and mid-thigh.
III. When there is evidence that a student's attire or personal appearance violates this policy, the principal or principal's designee shall intervene and take corrective actions, including but not limited to, requiring that the student remove or change the item, taking reasonable steps to notify the student's parents of the violation, and, for repeated violations, initiating progressive discipline for insubordination as appropriate, which may include suspension from school."

I wore a red bandana covering my head and tied in the back pirate-style for the first three days of this week. Some administrators/teachers asked me to remove it, and I asked why and got three different answers, but I almost always removed it. The three answers were "It's Board policy" from the principal, "It's disrespectful" from a teacher, and an explanation that because of Columbine students are not permitted to stand out because of their headgear. This last was from an administrator who on Wednesday took my bandana from me and arranged a meeting with my designated administrator for today. At this meeting, I was told that they could have suspended me for insubordination for continuing to wear the bandana, but they left me with a verbal warning and a parental phone call. If, however, I wear headgear on the school premises again, I will be suspended.

Although I agree with and accept the actions taken so far by the administrators and principal, their job is to enforce the Board's policies, these incidents have led me to question the policy itself. The bandana was in no way distracting or disruptive until the administrator called me from class for the meeting. Does anybody see a way I can convince my school to allow me to wear my bandana? Any help at all would be appreciated. Thank you.
 
It is sad sign of the state of individual liberties in this great country that probably you have no recourse against this attempt to make our school children all look like the kids in communist China: totally uniform.

The issue of school dress codes has been brought to court very often and, especially in a case like yours, where the issue is not a slogan or similar printed on a piece of clothing, but the piece of clothing itself, usually the courts upheld the dress codes as constitutional:

Here an excerpt from http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org...opic.aspx?topic=clothing_dress_codes_uniforms

>>Many courts will analyze student dress cases under a threshold test established by the Supreme Court in flag-desecration cases. This two-part test asks: (1) whether the student intended to convey a particular message, and (2) whether reasonable observers would understand this message. A federal district court in New Mexico applied this standard to rule that a public school student did not have a First Amendment right to wear sagging jeans.

In Bivens v. Albuquerque Public Schools, the judge questioned whether sagging pants conveyed any particular message: "Sagging is not necessarily associated with any single racial or cultural group, and sagging is seen by some merely as a fashion trend followed by many adolescents all over the United States." The judge said that even if sagging somehow constituted a message, the student failed to establish that reasonable observers would understand any message coming from the wearing of sagging pants.

Other courts have applied a test developed from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1968 decision on draft-card burning, U.S. v. O'Brien, to determine whether a school dress code is constitutional. Under the O'Brien test, a school dress code or uniform policy is constitutional if it:


Is authorized under state law.
Advances an important government interest.
Is not related to the suppression of free expression.
Only incidentally restricts free expression in a minimal fashion.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has used the O'Brien test more than once to uphold a school-uniform policy against constitutional challenge, as in Canady v. Bossier Parish School Board:

"The School Board's purpose for enacting the uniform policy is to increase test scores and reduce disciplinary problems throughout the school system," the appeals court wrote in Canady. "This purpose is in no way related to the suppression of student speech."

Another legal standard is sometimes applied to student dress code disputes. Courts will apply the Supreme Court's 1986 decision Bethel School District v. Fraser, which allowed a school to punish a student for giving a vulgar speech before the student assembly. Some courts will use the Fraser precedent to prohibit students from wearing any clothing that contains vulgar, lewd or plainly offensive expression. For example, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that Norfolk school officials could prohibit a student from wearing a shirt with the anti-drug message "Drugs Suck." According to school officials and the federal judge, the word "suck" was a vulgar term with sexual connotations that could be prohibited by school officials.

When applying these varying legal standards, many courts have upheld school dress policies, rejecting constitutional challenges by students. For example, the 5th Circuit has upheld school-uniform policies in Louisiana (in Canady) and Texas. Many students have lost when they challenged their suspension for wearing Confederate flag clothing. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a school district's flat ban on the Confederate flag. <<

In those cases where the students prevailed it was as far as I know almost always an issue of a political slogan on the clothing.
 
I was wearing a purple bandana today at my high school in Arizona- I had it covering the top of my head, with the knot at the front. Kind of pirate style, but backwards and with the flap tucked under the knot.
Security confiscated my bandana, and I'm not allowed to have it back until the end of the school year. I found this info in the handbook that the district has available, since I couldn't find the student handbook.

"Accordingly, policy and regulations
prohibit student dress or grooming that, in the judgment of the school administration:
• presents a hazard to the health, safety or general welfare of students, staff, or
others;
• interferes with or disrupts the educational environment or process;
• produces disorder in the educational process;
• creates an atmosphere of threat, intimidation or undue pressure;
• causes excessive wear or damage to school property;
• represents membership in, or support of, a gang; or
• displays obscene language or symbols, or symbols of sex, drugs, or alcohol."


My bandana wasn't offensive in any way, it was not a distraction, I was obviously not wearing gang colors, and I don't understand why they confiscated my bandana, when dozens of kids around were wearing ICP chains.

I feel for you, Weird.
 
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I was wearing a purple bandana today at my high school in Arizona- I had it covering the top of my head, with the knot at the front. Kind of pirate style, but backwards and with the flap tucked under the knot.

Security confiscated my bandana, and I'm not allowed to have it back until the end of the school year (which isn't that far away, but that rule is still ridiculous).

My bandana wasn't offensive in any way, it was not a distraction, I was obviously not wearing gang colors, and I don't understand why they confiscated my bandana, when dozens of kids around were wearing ICP chains.


There are some countries on this planet where you would have been summarily SHOT for defying authority.

Life isn't fair.

With all of the dischord, suffering, and despair all over the world; I don't care about you and your "silly" bandanna!
 
Listen here, BITCH. I wasn't BITCHING about my silly bandana. I just wanted to know the reason, BITCH, that they took it.

That's it.

I wasn't asking for anyone to care about my bandana. I just wanted to know the reason. That's it.
 
I think we all know the reason now!!!

Listen here, BITCH. I wasn't BITCHING about my silly bandana. I just wanted to know the reason, BITCH, that they took it.

That's it.

I wasn't asking for anyone to care about my bandana. I just wanted to know the reason. That's it.
 
I'm sorry, that was extremely rude of me, and I regret having posted that.

You're right, there is a lot of pain and suffering in the world, and there always will be. Life isn't fair, and its never going to be. There are people out there with much greater concerns than me and my silly bandana. But I don't think that using their suffering as an excuse to keep our mouths shut is doing them any favors. Shouldn't we be grateful that we live in a country were we can, to an extent, voice our opinions?
 
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