Term Paper on "United States of America"

Term Paper 11 pages (3419 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

This was the case decided in 1969 and involved students who wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The judge in this case granted students the freedom of expression given to them by First Amendment. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas used these words in the case, "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate... In our system, state-operated schools may not be the enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students" (Kakoulas, 2005). However, Supreme Court did not give this right to students in absolute terms mentioning that school can restrict certain aspects if they find them to disorder the normal functions of school and classroom life.

Newsom v. Albemarle County School Board, No. 03-1125 (4th Cir. December 1, 2003)

Dress codes at times can be confusing and may create problems in terms of their interpretation. Besides, many a times it has happened that implementation of dress codes have resulted in lawsuits. The case under consideration is of a boy, Alan Newsom, who wore a t-shirt bearing the initials "NRA" and depicting three gunmen. The dress code of the school, Jouett Middle School, restricts students to wear any dress having symbols or pictures related to weapons and violence. Alan went to the school wearing the t-shirt mentioned above in defiance of the dress code. Alan was once asked to wear the shirt inside out. On First Amendment grounds, Alan challenged this dress code in the courts requesting for a preliminary injunction with the help of National Rifle Association. Request for injunction preventing from enforcing the code was rejected by the district Court

Later Alan with support of some other organizations made an appeal to the Fourth Circuit. The fourth Circuit approved preliminary injunction prohibiting the school district from enforcing the dress code with regard to the student's t-shirt. Many questions were raised regarding court's decision to support this guy's stance on wearing t-shirts having violent symbols. Court in response mentioned that School could not prove that this t-shirt or any such item of clothing ever caused a violent problem or commotion at the school premises. This case depicts how dress codes issues can become complex.

Stephenson v. Davenport Community School District

Brianna Stephenson, a high school honor roll student, sued the school district for monetary damages when school made her undergo laser treatments for cleaning her skin of cross symbol tattoos on her hands. The treatment not only caused her money but she had to endure a lot of pain also leaving scars on her hands. The school had rules that prohibited the symbols, signs activities that can be considered gang related. Stephenson sued for her first amendment rights in United States District Court that rejected her appeal. Later her appeal was accepted in the Eighth circuit and court ruled the demands of school unconstitutional in the light of vague rules, generalized and unspecific rules regarding student conduct and dress code. A cross symbol can be a sign of faith to one and ir could mean something else to some other person. In the absence of clear-cut guidelines of what is acceptable and what is not the decision went against the school. The school district had to pay for damages in this case, after which school had to change its policies. This case was a major development for those students who use tattoos as a form of expression. As in Massachusetts and South Carolina, tattoos have been legally accepted as a means of expression before which it was considered a taboo in states like Massachusetts.

Uniform Issue

The debate regarding school uniforms for public schools has been going on for a long time. Some private schools do have the uniform dress code for its pupils but students all over in general do not welcome the idea of uniforms. To them wearing uniform means restricting a personal expression. This quest for wearing your personality and hunt for the latest, trendy and not to mention expensive outfits to schools has been a cause of concern for parents. New and trendy clothes get a lot of the budget of parents and students spend a lot of time and concentration on their wardrobe then single-mindedly pursuing studies. They all want trendy sneaker, chic shirts, hip jeans and stylish dresses. The focus to uniform issue came in the limelight when the State of California adopted legislation paving for mandatory school uniforms. Massachusetts former Governor William Weld told a gathering of students and faculty at the Robert L. Ford Elementary School in Lynn, ." "Whether students are in first grade or eighth grade, they are all in school for the same reason -- to learn. And too often clothes distract kids from this goal" (Hanson, 1996).

The issue of uniforms has been raised quite a number of times over the years. The whole issue of enforcing uniforms got a jolt when Supreme Court passed its verdict in 1996 and proclaimed the First Amendment protects the right to individual dress. In some cases where schools adopted uniform, they had to face lawsuits by parent with the support of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) .The stance in many cases has been challenged when school authorities were able to prove that uniforms can help, in resolving many classroom issues, improve discipline and discourage violence.

In many cases schools adopted the policy of giving students the options of uniform. This practice never worked out for most schools as in the beginning a number of students started wearing uniforms but with the passage of time the number of students wearing uniforms started decreasing. Students who did not wear uniforms openly poked fun at those few who were wearing uniforms because of which this voluntary uniform policy failed. Even courts in many cases have passed the verdict that a compulsory uniform policy is better than the option policy.

President Clinton had been a supporter of uniforms when he was in office. He even spoke publicly in favor of uniforms as to how they can help students and schools. California district also released figures and percentages indicating decrease in on-campus crime, sex robbery and weapons possession.

In United States of America states and not the federal government take the decision regarding dress codes and there has been no legislation passed by the state itself regarding uniforms.. Individual states, though have had different stance in this regard. School bards make decisions regarding dress code policies that are later adopted by schools. Since, school bards have elected representatives, people who support a particular point-of-view that can be pro-uniform or against uniform for example, can select like-minded representatives on board. So students who want a free dress code policy should go and vote for the right people. A majority of School boards on the other hand have supported and recommended the uniform dress codes. Different behavioral studies done also do not give too favorable statistics in support of uniform. These studies show that uniforms have not shown a significant change in students' behavior. A study was conducted in 1998 to find the effect of uniform on attendance, behavioral Problems, substance abuse, and academic achievement and again no significant change was found.

The Polk County School Case

The school bard of Polk County, Florida decided to enforce uniform for K-8 students in the year 1999. The school board asked its students to follow a mandatory uniform policy and clearly mentioned that those who violate the uniform rule would get suspended. The school even went to the length of warning parents for encouraging their children in violating the new rule. The new dress code required students to wear same colors and style of clothes with the freedom of little variations for example short or long sleeves, navy blue or white collar, polo or oxford shirt, dark blue black or Khaki pants or skirts etc. The dress code also allowed buttons, armbands or other symbols for expressing them but strictly banned different sorts of phrases, words or emblems. The exceptions of mandatory uniform were given to boy or girl scouts, new students for a certain period, and those have objection considering their religious beliefs.

More than five hundred families filed a class action lawsuit with the help of am attorney.

They hauled a number of accusations on school board. They accused board of shifting its focus from their main concern that is education to that of uniforms. They objected to restricting students from making a choice for their own clothes with respect to their individuality, gender, religious belief, ethnic background etc. Their view was that parents have greater right to exercise control over what children would wear rather than school board and uniforms have become an extra burden of clothes for them, as they have to buy them along with the regular clothes.

Once school started there were many cases that did not explicitly violated… READ MORE

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