Carroll County should consider requiring uniforms for public school students, Superintendent Charles Ecker said.
Uniforms would thrust learning to the forefront instead of social hierarchies based on popular or expensive clothing, Ecker said, and they would improve security by reducing areas where students could hide and bring weapons into school.
“It would sort of level the playing field,” he said.
Uniforms are requiredin 11 public middle and high schools in Anne Arundel County this school year, and the Harford County Board of Education is looking into requiring uniforms next year.
Uniforms would not be required countywide in Carroll; each school would be considered separately, Ecker said, based on parents? input. Some parents in Carroll say schools are not preparing their children to dress appropriately when they graduate.
“If you walk around the schools these days, especially the high schools, you see a lot of clothes that aren?t really appropriate for schools, with the shirts going up and the pants going down,” said Mary Alexander, PTSA president at South Carroll High School.
Schools already have dress codes banning short skirts and low blouses, but Alexander said schools should prepare students for the “real world,” where employees must dress professionally.
“It would just take one less thing off the administration to worry about,” Alexander said.
And students? “They?ll say, ?You?re taking away my freedom,? but you know, they?re children,” she said. “You can?t always wear what you want to wear.”
Anne Arundel has the right idea, said Nancy Milliken, PTA president at Winters Mill High School, slowly introducing younger students to uniforms so when they grow older, they more readily accept them.
“I think if they?re introduced in high school, it?s not going to fly,” Milliken said.
