The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996                TAG: 9603050088
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS          PAGE: 12   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: Jon Glass
        
                                             LENGTH: Short :   35 lines

2 MORE SCHOOLS GET OK TO REQUIRE UNIFORMS

Two more schools have received School Board approval to require students to wear uniforms. Ruffner Middle this year became the first school in Norfolk to make the uniforms mandatory.

Bowling Park and St. Helena elementary schools have permission to require students to wear uniforms.

Bowling Park has experimented with student uniforms for several years, but it requested permission for students in all grades to wear uniforms for three days of the week.

Many students at St. Helena already are wearing uniforms voluntarily, Principal Winifred Reid said. She proposes all students begin dressing out in them next school year.

``It was our opinion that the wearing of uniforms would have a great impact on maximizing student achievement and also improving student discipline,'' Reid wrote in a memo to Superintendent Roy D. Nichols.

Reid said a majority of parents surveyed favored uniforms.

Proponents argue that students face less peer pressure and are able to focus better on school work if they are dressed alike.

Several schools in Virginia Beach and Portsmouth also have outfitted students in uniforms since the Virginia General Assembly last year passed legislation enabling school boards to require them. by CNB