Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: J. MICHAEL KENNEDY LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
There he was on the school playground during lunch period, decked out in the white shirt and black pants worn by all the boys at Franklin Middle School in nearby Long Beach.
For those who still question the value of uniforms in schools, Ashley has one answer: Look at the numbers, look at the reduction of crime on the city's public school campuses.
The number of school fights is down by half. School suspensions are down by a third. Every measurable criminal activity is down in public schools throughout the city, from the richest neighborhoods to the poorest.
Almost a year ago, the Long Beach School District made national headlines when it became the first school district in the country to make uniforms mandatory for its elementary and middle school students.
And Ashley, then the principal of Washington Middle School, thought the new rule was little more than window dressing in a school system beset by high crime and serious money problems. A lot of other school administrators agreed.
``I thought it was trying to solve a complex social issue with a real simplistic answer,'' he said while sitting in his new office at Franklin, in the heart of one of Long Beach's tougher neighborhoods.
But Ashley and others have done an about-face because of the downturn in school violence since uniforms were introduced last September. There were, for instance, 1,135 incidents of fighting in the 1993-94 school year, but only 554 for the 1994-95 school year.
No one is saying uniforms are the only reason violence is down.
Other factors cited include an increased emphasis on parent involvement, decentralization of schools and a general effort to improve the learning environment.
Superintendent Carl Cohn is reticent about declaring total victory until more time has passed and a major study can be conducted about the link between uniforms and a decrease in school crime. ``I want to be fairly cautious in making sure it isn't a one-year blip on the screen,'' said Cohn.
Still, Cohn is ``delighted'' with the first-year results. And Cohn, other school officials and teachers are convinced that uniforms have played a major role in the turnaround.
``I think it's great news for all of us who have advocated school uniforms as a way of building community,'' said Theodore R. Mitchell, dean of the UCLA School of Education.
The view from the street is much the same, with Long Beach police saying the uniforms seem to have an effect on the way students act.
``We don't seem to have a problem with the kids who are in uniform,'' said Sgt. William Brough of the Long Beach juvenile division. ``I think it's been a great success.''
Small wonder, then, that the Long Beach district is being inundated with hundreds of calls from all over the country, with school officials, parents and the news media checking on the program's progress.
One reason they want to learn about Long Beach is that it isn't some rich, suburban district, but one with all the big-city problems - drugs, crime, racial tension, an ethnic smorgasbord and students for whom learning often takes a back seat to simple survival.
``It's probably the greatest interest we've seen in any [education] story in the last 20 years,'' said school district spokesman Dick Van Der Laan.
Interest in public-school uniforms is spreading throughout the nation.
Various states, including Virginia, California, New York, Georgia, Louisiana and Maryland, have passed laws authorizing school districts to order their students into uniform.
In Long Beach, 10 public schools already required uniforms before they were mandated in all elementary and middle schools. The results were part of the reason the school board expanded the requirement to all 56 elementary and 14 middle schools in the district.
Whittier Elementary, which began requiring uniforms five years ago, was the first. It now boasts the lowest absentee rate in the district, a circumstance that officials said would not ordinarily be expected, given the poverty and transient nature of the neighborhood. School officials attribute better attendance, in part, to the introduction of uniforms.
Another school, Newcomb Academy, switched to uniforms two years ago, and teachers immediately began seeing higher test scores. Already considered one of the better schools in the Long Beach system, it became even more in demand after the switch to uniforms, with parents camping out overnight to get their children on the admission list.
At about the same time, Lincoln Elementary parents banded together and said they wanted uniforms because they felt it might increase safety for children who inadvertently wear gang colors to school.
These days, there is no mistaking the students of any elementary or middle school, with their blue jumpers and shorts combined with white shirts and blouses. When a gang member or gang wanna-be comes on campus, everyone knows it immediately and teachers are quicker to respond in challenging a stranger on the grounds.
Some of the schools, each of which sets its own uniform policy, allow some deviation. A few allow shirts with school emblems or even blue jeans. But most stick to the basics: polo shirts and shorts.
Cohn gave much of the credit to parents in all parts of the city for the initial success. Because all of the elementary and middle schools were involved, it ensured that all of the city's diverse communities became involved in the uniform effort, he said.
``When a school system sets a higher standard, parents actually overwhelmingly respond in a very positive way,'' Cohn said. ``We never could have done this without their cooperation.''
The response among students is fairly predictable: The older they get, the less they like the requirement. That was what made Cohn and the board of education stop short of requiring uniforms for high school students, fearing it would be an invitation to open defiance and civil liberties suits - something that thus far has been avoided.
A typical student response comes from Fabe Garcia, a Franklin eighth-grader: ``We hate uniforms. People look like twins, and you have to wear the same colors every day. We would like to wear our own clothes.''
But a more telling answer comes from seventh-grader Dieon Murphy: ``You don't get shot at.''
Safety factors aside, teachers and parents say there is a social value to uniforms that makes them worthwhile. Teachers emphasize how children respond much better in the classroom when they are all dressed the same.
Sherry Nieto, a second-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary, said the uniforms had gone a long way toward leveling the playing field of how students dress, creating more equality between the haves and have nots.
``When the kids were wearing their own clothes, there wouldn't be any physical violence, but aggravation shown by children who did not have the Nike sneakers or the Guess clothing.
``There was a feeling by those who did not have those things that they were not as good,'' she said. ``It was an esteem thing. Now, of course, that is gone. The children don't even focus on shoes now.''
Joe Palumbo was co-principal at Newcomb when uniforms were instituted there two years ago. He is not one to hype clothing as a panacea, and knows that ``just slapping clothes on kids won't improve a school.'' But he believes uniforms can be instrumental in changing the tenor of a school if they are accompanied by other reforms to improve the learning process. Mostly, he said, uniforms put students in the proper frame of mind for why they are in school.
``One element of the message is that when you are going to school, that is your place of work,'' he said. ``That is the place where you are working at getting smart.''
by CNB