The Tennessean reported on September 27 that Metro schools are enforcing the dress code with different levels of veracity.
The new dress code for Metro schools regulates the colors and types of clothing that can be worn by students. The dress code is district wide. However, some schools have a higher number of dress code violations, while others have a minimal number.
*COUGH*
Let me rephrase that.
Schools like Stratford HS, McGavock HS, and Hunters Lane HS have a higher number of dress code violations, and schools like Hume Fogg Academic MAGNET, Martin Luther King Jr MAGNET, and Nashville School of the Arts MAGNET have far fewer. A breakdown is listed below and to find information on your school, check out this site.
School Name Total Recorded Violations:
- Stratford High School 24 OSS, 20 ISS 44
- McGavock High School 1 OSS, 78 ISS 79
- Hunters Lane High School 30 OSS, 424 ISS 454
- Hume-Fogg Academic MAGNET 21 ISS 21
- Martin Luther King, Jr. MAGNET 1 ISS 1
- Nashville School of the Arts MAGNET 1 ISS 1
(OSS = out of school suspension, ISS = in school suspension)
What does this mean? I am not trying to suggest that Magnet school students are somehow more adept at dressing themselves according to certain guidelines. What I am stating is that the dress code, both its implementation and its enforcement highlights the inequality across Metro schools. Magnet schools are not made to be as concerned with the dress code violations as other schools. In fact a conversation with Hume-Fogg student, Leah Flynn, revealed that she had worn stripes, and a non-collared shirt to school that day and no one had said anything of it. Once again, the inequality in Metro schools benefits the privileged and magnet schools.
-Corey Ann
For another look at the different experiences of high school students, check out Teenedge’s own article, entitled Life Inside the Walls of Nashville High Schools.
Filed under: Nashville, education, human rights, racism
I can’t help but shake my head at the number of ISS/OSS. Yeah, THAT’S not disruptive at all.
I feel like with magnet schools SSA doesn’t need to be enforced as strictly because magnet school behavior (for the most part) is not what SSA was aiming to correct. We have high test scores, there aren’t fights in our halls, we’re not dropping out, and we barely have cliques (I can only speak for Hume-Fogg, of course).
Then again, I’m not for SSA anywhere. There is no proof that it has ever made a difference at other schools. Maybe if we could convince taxpayers to allow a higher property tax to pay for more resources in struggling schools…
Just a thought.
Leah
Dress codes are no more ridiculous for magnet programs than they are for the others, as long as we’re all focusing on higher things. “A schoar who aspires to the way but who is ashamed of wretched clothing and wretched food is not worthy of discussion.” -Analects 4.9
i go to hunters lane and i know excatly what you mean..
I honestly see no reason to have standard school attire. To me, it is just wasting time and directing resources from more important things, like gangs and drugs. I go to McGavock, and I see people selling pot, I smell the smoke wafting out from the bathrooms every morning; some of my friends will even go around, asking for cigarettes. So, personally, I think the effort used to enforce SSA would be better spent on the more urgent issues, rather than some trivial metropolitan rule made by men and women who haven’t attended school in decades and don’t have to deal with the drugs, fights, and gang related activities.
But that’s just me.