128 kids suspended in Hammond

[Steff]

The locked door thing is actually the policy at the junior high I'm at.

 

Students get 3 minute passing periods. When the bell rings, all the doors get shut and then staff "sweeps" the halls where they get the late students with passes and then let them into the room. Students get a detention for the first two tardies and then harsher punishments as it goes on.

 

The administration should have gone with in-school suspensions. I kinda fail to see how sending them home with no supervision, TV, video games etc. is a real punishment. With an in-school suspension, they get all their work and are supervised that they spend the day doing their homework.

 

 

We had the locked door thing at Richards when I went to HS. I thought that was the norm. And I agree with the in-school suspension thing - we had that also. And do they not have detention anymore?

[EvilMonkey]

Up until i moved last year, my boys had to wear 'uniforms' at the grade schools. Black or dark blue pants/shorts for boys, along with light blue polos, dress shirts or plain t-shirts. Pretty cheap to buy, even if they are wearing them 'only' 6 or 7 hours a day. You buy 5 or 6 polos for about $15 each, a few pairs of the pants, and actually do a load of laundry during the week, you are set for about $100. if you took your kid out shopping for the school clothes they wanted to wear, you would be lucky if the price tag was still 3 figures.

[Iwritecode]

MCHS actually has the sweep policy as well. They just started it last year, along with the reduced number of tardy's. They also have it to where so many tardys equal an absence, and so many absenses equal an automatic failure of that grading period, although according to my wife, I don't believe she ever had a kid fail for attendance, who wasn't going to fail for grades anyway.

 

I know somebody that missed 56 days his senior year. He passed all his classes with A's and B's.

 

The very next year they implemented a rule that if you missed more than X amount of days in a given semester (like 10 or 15, I don't remember the exact number), you automatically failed that semester. We "unofficially" named the rule after him.

 

The locked door thing is actually the policy at the junior high I'm at.

 

Students get 3 minute passing periods. When the bell rings, all the doors get shut and then staff "sweeps" the halls where they get the late students with passes and then let them into the room. Students get a detention for the first two tardies and then harsher punishments as it goes on.

 

The administration should have gone with in-school suspensions. I kinda fail to see how sending them home with no supervision, TV, video games etc. is a real punishment. With an in-school suspension, they get all their work and are supervised that they spend the day doing their homework.

 

3 minute passing period? You must have a small school. We had 5 minutes and sometimes that was just barely enough to get to your locker and get across the school to the next class.

 

Wouldn't having a locked door be some sort of fire hazard? Or does that just apply to the doors that lead outside?

Edited August 29, 2006 by Iwritecode

[SleepyWhiteSox]

Up until i moved last year, my boys had to wear 'uniforms' at the grade schools. Black or dark blue pants/shorts for boys, along with light blue polos, dress shirts or plain t-shirts. Pretty cheap to buy, even if they are wearing them 'only' 6 or 7 hours a day. You buy 5 or 6 polos for about $15 each, a few pairs of the pants, and actually do a load of laundry during the week, you are set for about $100. if you took your kid out shopping for the school clothes they wanted to wear, you would be lucky if the price tag was still 3 figures.

 

My point exactly.

[Texsox]

The other thing that uniforms do is put every student on a level playing field. They all dress the same and it is difficult to tell the poor kids from the rish kids. It also helps to create school identity and school spirit. I was initially against uniforms, but came around when my kids attended a school that tried to enforce a uniform program.

[Iwritecode]

Up until i moved last year, my boys had to wear 'uniforms' at the grade schools. Black or dark blue pants/shorts for boys, along with light blue polos, dress shirts or plain t-shirts. Pretty cheap to buy, even if they are wearing them 'only' 6 or 7 hours a day. You buy 5 or 6 polos for about $15 each, a few pairs of the pants, and actually do a load of laundry during the week, you are set for about $100. if you took your kid out shopping for the school clothes they wanted to wear, you would be lucky if the price tag was still 3 figures.

 

 

Clothes for uniforms serve one purpose only: school clothes.

 

Regular clothes serve multiple purposes. School clothes, play clothes, going out to eat clothes, going to the store clothes, lounging around on the weekend clothes...

[Steff]

Wouldn't having a locked door be some sort of fire hazard? Or does that just apply to the doors that lead outside?

 

 

 

Why would the doors INTO the classrooms being locked be a fire hazard?

[Iwritecode]

Why would the doors INTO the classrooms being locked be a fire hazard?

 

I guess it depends on what type of lock it is. If it's one where you can just turn in by hand from the inside, then it's probably not a big deal. But if it's one that requires a key on both sides, then that might be a problem. Obviously if it's still being done in schools, it's not a problem.

 

I guess I was thinking back to the movie "Lean On Me" (which is based on a true story) where the principal put chains and padlocks on all the doors leading outside. IIRC, he had to take them down because it was a fire hazard.

 

Different scenario I guess...

[Texsox]

Why would the doors INTO the classrooms being locked be a fire hazard?

 

If the nearest point of exit is through that room. I guess the example would be a large first story window. You wouldn't want to exit through the fire if you could go through a window. I am certain their procedures is for the door to be unlocked before exiting. Honestly, this is such a one in a billion chance, it probably isn't important until something happens.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

The building is fairly small so 3 minutes works pretty well (mainly because 99.9% of the classes for a given grade are in the same hallway except for PE and lunch)

 

The dress code policy at the school is not wearing baggy pants, no bandanas, no tight shorts, no midriffs, no plunging necklines/spaghetti straps, don't have clothes that promote inappropriate behavior and that sort of stuff. It isn't too out there at all.

 

The door opens from the inside but is locked for the outside (that way late students can't sneak in) but I can open the door.

[EvilMonkey]

Clothes for uniforms serve one purpose only: school clothes.

 

Regular clothes serve multiple purposes. School clothes, play clothes, going out to eat clothes, going to the store clothes, lounging around on the weekend clothes...

And they both last longer.

[BobDylan]

How many colleges enforce a dress code? In fact, I can go to class in my underwear, wear a hat, not shower, not shave, and display beer and profanity all over my clothes and never have a word said about it to me. Kids learn to be adults in college, in high school they learn how to get to college.

 

When people are forced to go to school, to tell them how to dress is fascist.

[Balta1701]

When people are forced to go to school, to tell them how to dress is fascist.

You mean the same people who enforce these dress codes are the "Some people" we keep hearing about who want to surrender to terrorists? Wow! I never would have guessed!

 

(end filibuster-type joke)

[southsider2k5]

How many colleges enforce a dress code? In fact, I can go to class in my underwear, wear a hat, not shower, not shave, and display beer and profanity all over my clothes and never have a word said about it to me. Kids learn to be adults in college, in high school they learn how to get to college.

 

When people are forced to go to school, to tell them how to dress is fascist.

 

That's Ok. These same kids who think it is too big of a burden to follow a dress code in HS, are the same ones who still can't do it when they hit the workplace. All it means is more opportunities for people who do get it.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14576541/

 

Ruth Sherman, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based communications consultant whose client roster includes Deloitte, Pfizer and Bank of America, says common complaints about younger workers range from lame handshakes and poor conversational skills to super-casual attire and personal use of company e-mail. Some show up at job interviews in tee shirts. What the Gen Yers don't see, she says, is the meaning and value of gestures and other non-verbal skills that don't come through in a text message.

 

"My clients are frustrated; a lot of them are throwing up their hands because they can't persuade young people to get it," Sherman says.

[Texsox]

http://www.wikihow.com/Dress-Like-an-Indiv...th-a-Dress-Code

More and more schools all over the world are imposing stricter dress codes or uniform requirements on students. While administrators claim these measures encourage equality and proper behavior and discourage gangs and offensive clothing, many students feel that dress codes restrict their ability to express themselves. If your high school has a stringent dress code and you're worried you might look like "a nerd" or like "everybody else," here's how you can distinguish yourself from the crowd.

 

More at link

[BobDylan]

http://www.wikihow.com/Dress-Like-an-Indiv...th-a-Dress-Code

More at link

 

People who can express themselves through their clothes generally don't need a how-to. But then again, the people who are actually expressing themselves instead of looking slutty or dangerous more often than not follow the dress code.

 

That's Ok. These same kids who think it is too big of a burden to follow a dress code in HS, are the same ones who still can't do it when they hit the workplace. All it means is more opportunities for people who do get it.

 

Ruth Sherman, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based communications consultant whose client roster includes Deloitte, Pfizer and Bank of America, says common complaints about younger workers range from lame handshakes and poor conversational skills to super-casual attire and personal use of company e-mail. Some show up at job interviews in tee shirts. What the Gen Yers don't see, she says, is the meaning and value of gestures and other non-verbal skills that don't come through in a text message.

 

"My clients are frustrated; a lot of them are throwing up their hands because they can't persuade young people to get it," Sherman says.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14576541/

 

Fact is, students go to high school to crunch numbers, learn history, and read books. Sure there is a dress code in the business world, but who is the public school system to tell us that success is had in the way you dress? Firstly, the richest man in the world and his employees worked a graveyard shift wearing jeans. Secondly, you're going to tell me somebody that is studying to be a painter or a novelist needs to know how to shake hands and wear a f***ing tie? The public school system has it wrong and they'll always have it wrong. They teach in a generic way and let the kids who can't learn by their system rot. Instead of worrying about what the kids look like or if they can see their ass crack, they should be worrying about the kids passing class. They should be looking for inventive ways to teach the kids who don't quite "get it". They should be embracing creativity and difference. Perhaps if schools did this, nobody out in the "job" world would give a f*** what you wear -- as this the way it should be. Many school administrators frown on bullies, they way they pick on kids just for the way they look. I agree with the administrators that it's a problem. But if you go out into the business world as a highly qualified stock broker and lose out on a job because you didn't wear a suit, isn't that the same bull s*** over again? Looks ain't important folks, that's the big picture.

[NorthSideSox72]

Looks ain't important folks, that's the big picture.

 

Which is one of the many reasons why a dress code, or even uniforms, are good. It takes that element out of the equation.

[BobDylan]

Which is one of the many reasons why a dress code, or even uniforms, are good. It takes that element out of the equation.

 

You're not looking at it from my perspective. Difference in a classroom is good. The public school system has never understood this.

[Steff]

You're not looking at it from my perspective. Difference in a classroom is good. The public school system has never understood this.

 

 

 

But if there is a dresscode problem it distracts from the teaching element. You are right... focus should be on the teaching. Right now it's on what designer label is on your ass.

[Heads22]

So did I go to the most lax high school ever? You could roam the halls without hall passes. There was never a door locked. You could walk right in the principal's office and have a conversation.

[NorthSideSox72]

You're not looking at it from my perspective. Difference in a classroom is good. The public school system has never understood this.

Your perspective is self-conflicting. You say that looks are not important, and that difference in a classroom is good, but allowing different clothes as a manner of expression is good. Do you not see the inconsistency there?

 

Difference IS good. Promoting the perpetuity of money and status is not.

 

 

So did I go to the most lax high school ever? You could roam the halls without hall passes. There was never a door locked. You could walk right in the principal's office and have a conversation.

You grew up in Iowa. You probably never had to lock your front door.

[BobDylan]

Your perspective is self-conflicting. You say that looks are not important, and that difference in a classroom is good, but allowing different clothes as a manner of expression is good. Do you not see the inconsistency there?

 

Difference IS good. Promoting the perpetuity of money and status is not.

 

I do not see inconsistency. And I fail to see how you do. The clothes people wear is a form of expression, it's also a telling of their background. What's wrong with a kid wearing $200 pants and another kid wearing $10 pants in the same classroom? Should we also frown on kids growing up and seeing different cultures?

[southsider2k5]

Bob, with all due respect, I think you are missing the big picture. A big part of our educational system is things the kids learn that are not in text books. There are habits and skills that kids will learn in school that will benefit them after they leave school, that have zero to do with something on the SATs. Things like studying, homework, dress code, etc promote habits, lessons, and skills that begin to prepare kids for adulthood. A dress code is a great practice tool for the fact that 99% of workplaces don't want your ass hanging out while you are on their time, and there is a reason for that. It isn't because the principal is mean, or out of touch, or racist, or whatever. Proper dress for proper enviornment is a skill that kids should learn before they are 23 and their boss sends them home for having their cleavage hanging, or their gut hanging out over their low-riders at work. School isn't just about test scores, its about preparing kids for the real world.

[Heads22]

You grew up in Iowa. You probably never had to lock your front door.

 

 

 

We do, but in the 19 years I've lived here, never has anyone tried to get in.

[Steff]

I do not see inconsistency. And I fail to see how you do. The clothes people wear is a form of expression, it's also a telling of their background. What's wrong with a kid wearing $200 pants and another kid wearing $10 pants in the same classroom? Should we also frown on kids growing up and seeing different cultures?

 

 

 

I think you're missing the point. It's not about how much their clothes cost. It's the design of them, how they are wearing them, and what is appropriate in the learning atmosphere. I'm guessing that the main issue here is that if classmates see someone walking around with their boxers hanging out they are talking about that and not concerned with learning.