School system rejects uniforms!

Other than being against right-to-scab laws, there's few things I feel as strongly about as the issue of school uniforms. The long and short of it is, if I have any say, you cannot and will not require uniforms to be worn in public schools. You might be able to get away with it if you have a decent workaround, but most schools today are more interested in right-wing gimmicks and groupthink than in the Constitution, so I wouldn't count on the school to rectify it fairly.

I told you a couple weeks ago that the Edgewood City Schools in Trenton, Ohio, were planning on implementing a mandatory uniform policy. In the past dozen years, once a few activists in your district take a serious look at uniforms, it's usually all downhill from there. Almost always. Said school system usually emerges as a total wreckage at the hands of uniforms.

But today I learned that the school system north of Cincinnati has suddenly scrapped its uniform proposal! I couldn't believe what I was seeing! An American school district in the Bush era (in suburban Cincinnati, no less) actually rejected uniforms? I almost had to do a double-take when I saw the article! The news seems almost too good to be true, but it appears to be so.

The school system seemed hell-bent on instituting uniforms, but the superintendent found that studies show uniforms fail to improve academics or discipline. Gee, I could have told you that years ago. So now that gimmick is rendered a soggy pile of sawdust for the time being.

School board members now say it might be different if it was an inner-city school system where gangs are more prevalent, but that too is hooey. My experience was that gangs were far more of a problem in suburban schools than in urban schools, and uniforms wouldn't have prevented gangs anyway.

Relish our victory against the forces of loom and doom in Trenton!

(Source: http://www.journal-news.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/02/11/mj021208edgeboe.html)