Dress Codes

Regulating Dress

The history of dress codes in the United States receives little attention in the literature. However, there is evidence that student dress was predicated upon cultural and economic predispositions until the social upheaval of the 1960s. The burgeoning baby boom generation, with a growing disposable income, became a focal point of clothing marketers. As a result, fashion became a means of student expression and identity.

Developing dress codes to meet the fast-changing fashion industry has become problematic for policy makers. In Tinker v. Des Moines, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed students' right to freedom of speech by striking down a school district policy prohibiting students from wearing black arm bands in protest of the Vietnam War. Consequently, school district dress guidelines began to consider students' right to expression. Then, with the growth in conservatism in the 1980s, combined with the rising public concern about student discipline and safety in the schools, the courts became more receptive to increasingly dogmatic school dress policies, such as school uniform policies. Although the idea of implementing school uniform policies in the public schools began in the late 1980s, President Clinton added credence to the practice in [Page 260]1996 when he endorsed school uniform policies as a means of reducing school violence and disciplinary problems.