Peer Reviewed Articles on Cons of Uniforms and Bullying

Traditionally favored by individual and parochial institutions, schoolhouse uniforms are beingness adopted by Us public schools in increasing numbers. According to a 2020 report, the percent of public schools that required school uniforms jumped from 12% in the 1999-2000 school year to twenty% in the 2017-18 school year. Schoolhouse uniforms were most frequently required by uncomplicated schools (23%), followed by middle (18%), and high schools (10%).

Proponents say that school uniforms make schools safer for students, create a "level playing field" that reduces socioeconomic disparities, and encourage children to focus on their studies rather than their apparel.

Opponents say school uniforms infringe upon students' right to express their individuality, have no positive event on beliefs and bookish accomplishment, and emphasize the socioeconomic disparities they are intended to disguise. Read more than groundwork…

Pro & Con Arguments

Pro one

School uniforms may deter crime and increment educatee safety.

In Long Beach, CA, after ii years of a district-wide 1000-8 mandatory uniform policy, reports of assail and battery in the commune'southward schools decreased by 34%, assail with a deadly weapon dropped by fifty%, fighting incidents went downwardly by 51%, sex offenses were cutting by 74%, robbery dropped by 65%, possession of weapons (or weapon "look-alikes") decreased past 52%, possession of drugs went down by 69%, and vandalism was lowered by 18%. [64]

One yr after Sparks Center School in Nevada instituted a uniform policy, school police information showed a 63% drop in police log reports, and decreases were besides noted in gang activity, student fights, graffiti, property damage, and bombardment. [25] A peer-reviewed study found that schools with uniform policies had 12% fewer firearm-related incidents and xv% fewer drug-related incidents than schools without uniforms. [69]

School uniforms also prevent students from concealing weapons under baggy clothing, [38] make it easier to keep runway of students on field trips, and make intruders on campus more than visible. Frank Quatrone, superintendent in the Lodi district of New Bailiwick of jersey, stated that "When yous have students dressed alike, you lot make them safer. If someone were to come up into a building, the intruder could easily be recognized." [6]

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Pro two

School uniforms go on students focused on their education, non their clothes.

The National Clan of Secondary School Principals stated that, "When all students are wearing the same outfit, they are less concerned about how they wait and how they fit in with their peers; thus, they can concentrate on their schoolwork." [15] A study by the Academy of Houston establish that elementary school girls' linguistic communication test scores increased by about 3 percentile points later uniforms were introduced. [1]

Quondam US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton advocated school uniforms as a fashion to help students focus on learning: "Accept that [clothing choices] off the tabular array and put the focus on schoolhouse, not on what you're wearing." [30] Chris Hammons, Principal of Woodland Middle School in Coeur d'Alene, ID, stated that uniforms "provide for less distraction, less drama, and more of a focus on learning." [70]

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Pro 3

School uniforms create a level playing field among students, reducing peer pressure and bullying.

When all students are dressed alike, competition between students over clothing choices and the teasing of those who are dressed in less expensive or less fashionable outfits tin be eliminated. Enquiry by the Schoolwear Association institute that 83% of teachers idea "a skilful school uniform… could prevent bullying based on advent or economic background." [91] Arminta Jacobson, Founder and Director of the Center for Parent Education at the University of North Texas, stated that uniforms put "all kids on the same playing field in terms of their appearance. I think it probably gives them a sense of belonging and a feeling of beingness socially accepted." [5]

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Pro four

Wearing uniforms enhances school pride, unity, and community spirit.

Christopher P. Clouet, one-time Superintendent of the New London Public Schools in Connecticut, stated that "the wearing of uniforms contributes to schoolhouse pride." [iii] A study of over 1,000 Texas heart school students found that students in uniform "reported significantly more than positive perceptions of belonging in their schoolhouse customs than reported past students in the standard dress group." [33]

Arnold Goldstein, PhD, caput of the Center for Research on Aggression at Syracuse University, stated that uniforms assistance troubled students feel they accept the support of a customs: "At that place is a sense of belonging." [31] A peer-reviewed study constitute that after uniforms were introduced, "Teachers perceived an increase in the level of respect, caring, and trust… throughout the schoolhouse" and said "students are made to feel 'important' and as if they are a function of a team by wearing a compatible." [20]

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Pro 5

Schoolhouse uniforms may better attendance and discipline.

A study by researchers at the University of Houston found that the average absenteeism rate for girls in middle and loftier school decreased past vii% later the introduction of uniforms, and behavioral problems lessened in severity. [1] A Youngstown State University study of secondary schools in Ohio's eight largest school districts found that school uniform policies improve rates of omnipresence, graduation, and intermission. [27]

During the first semester of a mandatory uniform program at John Adams Middle Schoolhouse in Albuquerque, NM, discipline referrals dropped from one,565 during the first semester of the year prior to 405, a 74% subtract. [68] Macquarie Academy (Australia) researchers found that in schools across the globe where uniform policies are enforced, students "are more disciplined" and "listen significantly better, there are lower noise levels, and lower teaching waiting times with classes starting on time." [89]

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Pro 6

Uniform policies save valuable class time because they are easier to enforce than a standard wearing apparel lawmaking.

Doris Jo Murphy, EdD, one-time Director of Field Experiences at the University of Northward Texas Higher of Education, stated: "Every bit an elementary assistant main in 2 suburban districts, I can tell you that the wearing apparel code took up a great deal of my time in the area of field of study… I wished many times that we had uniforms because the issue of skirts or shorts being too short, and baggy jeans and pants on the boys not being pulled up as they needed to be, would have been a non-result." [5] Lyndhurst, NJ schoolhouse commune superintendent Tracey Marinelli had a similar experience before a compatible policy was introduced: "Kids were spending time in the office because they were not fulfilling the dress code… That was time abroad from class." [half dozen]

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Pro 7

Schoolhouse uniforms prevent the display of gang colors and insignia.

The US Department of Education's Manual on School Uniforms stated that uniform policies can "prevent gang members from wearing gang colors and insignia at school" in social club to "encourage a safe environment." [35] Educators in the Long Embankment Unified Schoolhouse District have speculated that the sharp reduction in offense following the introduction of school uniforms was a result of gang conflicts existence curbed. [67] Osceola Canton, FL School Lath member Jay Wheeler reported that the county's schools had a 46% drop in gang activity afterward their first full school year with a mandatory K-12 uniform policy. Wheeler stated that "wear is integral to gang culture… Imagine a U.Due south. Military recruiter out of uniform trying to recruit new soldiers; the success rate goes downwardly. The same applies to gang recruitment." [37]

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Pro 8

School uniforms make getting gear up for school easier, which can amend punctuality.

When uniforms are mandatory, parents and students do not spend time choosing appropriate outfits for the school day. According to a national survey, over 90% of United states of america school leaders believe school compatible or formal dress code policies "eliminate wardrobe battles with kids," make information technology "easier to go kids ready in the morning," and create a "time saving in the morning." [32] Tracey Marinelli, Superintendent of the Lyndhurst School District in New Jersey, credited the commune's uniform policy for reducing the number of students running tardily. Lyndhurst student Mike Morreale agreed, stating that "it'south and so much easier to dress than having to search for dress and find out that something doesn't match." [6] [7]

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Pro 9

Schoolhouse uniforms can salvage parents money.

Parents can reduce their financial burden when their children are limited to wearing one elementary outfit every day. [xiii] A study of uniform cost in the United Kingdom found that uniforms toll parents £88.05 ($128.79) per outfit, while out-of-schoolhouse outfits averaged £113.00 ($165.79). [87]

A national survey of 517 The states school leaders establish that 94% of those surveyed believe "one of the master benefits to parents is that school uniforms are more than price-effective than regular dress," and 77% estimated the average annual cost of school uniforms per child to be $150 or less. [32] Without school uniform policies, parents may feel pressure to compete with other families by purchasing stylish clothes for their children. [71]

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Pro x

Virtually parents and educators back up mandatory schoolhouse uniforms.

A survey by the National Association of Unproblematic School Principals (NAESP) and uniform manufacturer Lands' End establish that a majority of schoolhouse leaders believe their school uniform or formal apparel code policies have had a positive impact on classroom field of study (85%), the school's image in the customs (83%), student rubber (79%), school pride (77%), and student accomplishment (64%). [32] A poll administered by the Harford County, Medico schoolhouse system found that "teachers and administrators were overwhelmingly in favor" of introducing school uniforms. The poll besides found that 58% of parents wanted a mandatory uniform policy instated. [9]

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Pro 11

Students' legal right to free expression remains intact even with mandatory school uniforms.

The US Supreme Courtroom case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Customs School District (seven-ii, 1969), which concerned the wearing of blackness armbands to protest the Vietnam State of war, confirmed that students' constitutional correct to costless speech "does not relate to regulation of the length of skirts or the type of article of clothing." Wearing one's own selection of shirt or pants is not the "pure oral communication" protected by the Constitution. [eighteen] [28]

In Canady v. Bossier Parish School Board (3-0, 2001), the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a school lath's right to implement a mandatory compatible policy, stating that requiring uniforms for the purpose of increasing test scores and improving subject "is in no way related to the suppression of educatee speech. [Students] remain complimentary to wearable what they want subsequently school hours. Students may still express their views through other mediums during the school day." [18] [29]

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Pro 12

Students dressed in uniform are improve perceived past teachers and peers.

A 1994 peer-reviewed report plant that students in uniform were perceived by teachers and beau students as existence more academically proficient than students in regular clothes. The study also institute that students in uniform were perceived past peers and teachers as having college academic potential, and perceived by peers as being amend behaved. [4]

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Pro xiii

Students can express their individuality in school uniforms past introducing variations and adding accessories.

Junior high school student Amelia Jimenez wrote in her op-ed for the Pennsylvania Patriot-News website that "contrary to popular belief, uniforms practice not stop students from being themselves. Uniforms do not silence voices. Students tin can habiliment a diverseness of expressive items, such as buttons or jewlery." Students can inject their personal style into their daily expect with hairstyles, nail polish, and colorful accessories such as numberless, scarfs, and fun socks. [61] [62] [62] A peer-reviewed study found that 54% of eighth-graders said they could nevertheless express their individuality while wearing school uniforms. [65]

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Con ane

Schoolhouse uniforms restrict students' freedom of expression.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees that all individuals have the correct to express themselves freely. The US Supreme Court stated in Tinker 5. Des Moines Independent Community Schoolhouse Commune (seven-2, 1969) that "it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their ramble rights to liberty of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." [28] [viii]

In Sweden, a government bureau called the Schoolhouse Inspectorate adamant that uniforms were a human rights violation considering "apparel and appearance should be considered an individual expression, decided past the students themselves." [39] Clothing choices are "a crucial form of self-expression," according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which also stated that "assuasive students to choose their clothing is an empowering message from the schools that a student is a maturing person who is entitled to the almost basic cocky-determination." [17]

Uniforms take abroad the ability to employ clothing as means of expressing support for social causes. Students at Friendly Loftier School in Prince George'south County, MD, were not allowed to wear pink shirts to support Chest Cancer Awareness Month and 75 students received suspensions for breaking the school's uniform restrictions. [eleven]

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Con ii

Schoolhouse uniforms promote conformity over individuality.

Chicago junior high school student Kyler Sumter wrote in the Huffington Post: "They decide to teach us near people like Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony and Booker T. Washington… We learn virtually how these people expressed themselves and conquered and we can't even express ourselves in the hallways." [lx] Troy Shuman, a senior in Harford County, Physician, said the introduction of a mandatory uniform policy to his schoolhouse would be "teaching conformity and squelching individual idea. Just think of prisons and gangs. The ultimate socializer to crush rebellion is conformity in advent. If a school system starts at clothes, where does information technology end?" [9]

In schools where uniforms are specifically gendered (girls must article of clothing skirts and boys must clothing pants), transgendered, gender-fluid, and gender-nonconforming students tin can feel ostracized. Seamus, a 16-year-old transgendered boy, stated, "sitting in a blouse and skirt all twenty-four hours made me feel insanely anxious. I wasn't taken seriously. This is atrocious and dissentious to a young person's mental health; that compatible nearly destroyed me." [86] Late satirist George Carlin asked, "Don't these schools do plenty damage, making all these children call up akin? Now they're gonna go them to await alike, likewise?" [xl]

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Con three

School uniforms do not cease bullying and may increase violent attacks.

Tony Volk, PhD, Associate Professor at Brock University, stated, "Overall, there is no evidence in bullying literature that supports a reduction in violence due to schoolhouse uniforms." [85] A peer-reviewed study establish that "school uniforms increased the average number of assaults by well-nigh xiv [per year] in the most violent schools." [26] A Texas Southern University written report found that school discipline incidents rose by well-nigh 12% after the introduction of uniforms. [14] According to the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Office of Education Evaluation and Management, fights in middle schools nearly doubled within one twelvemonth of introducing mandatory uniforms. [72] [73]

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Con 4

School uniforms exercise not meliorate attendance, academic preparedness, or exam results.

David L. Brunsma, PhD, Professor of Sociology at Virginia Polytechnic Plant and Country University (Virginia Tech), co-authored a study that analyzed a national sample of 10th graders and plant "no effects of uniforms on absenteeism, behavioral problems (fights, suspensions, etc.), or substance use on campus" and "no effects" on "pro-schoolhouse attitudes, bookish preparedness, and peer attitudes toward school." [14] [66] Brunsma besides found a "negative effect of uniforms on bookish achievement," and later found that uniforms were equally ineffective on elementary students and eighth graders. [14]

A peer-reviewed written report institute "no significant effects of school uniforms on operation on 2d class reading and mathematics examinations, as well as on 10th-form reading, mathematics, scientific discipline, and history examinations… [I]northward many of the specifications, the results are actually negative." [ii]

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Con 5

The key findings used to tout the benefits of uniforms are questionable.

The ofttimes-quoted improvements to school condom and student behavior in the Long Beach (CA) Unified School District from 1993-1995 may not have resulted from the introduction of schoolhouse uniforms. The study in which the findings were published cautioned that "it is not clear that these results are entirely attributable to the uniform policy" and suggests that the introduction of new schoolhouse security measures made at the aforementioned time may have been partly responsible. [64]

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Con 6

Schoolhouse uniforms emphasize the socio-economic divisions they are supposed to eliminate.

Most public schools with uniform policies are in poor neighborhoods (47% of high-poverty public schools required schoolhouse uniforms vs. vi% of low poverty schools), emphasizing the class distinctions that uniforms were supposed to eliminate. [23] Even within 1 schoolhouse, uniforms cannot muffle the differences betwixt the "haves" and the "have-nots." David L. Brunsma, PhD, stated that "more flush families buy more than uniforms per child. The less affluent… they have one… It's more likely to be tattered, torn and faded. It only takes 2 months for socioeconomic differences to evidence upwards once more." [9]

Uniforms as well emphasize racial divisions. Schools with a minority student population of l% or more are four times every bit probable to require uniforms than schools with a minority population of 20-49%, and 24 times more than likely than schools with minority populations of 5%-19%. [78]

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Con seven

Students oppose school uniforms.

Enrollment at Washington High School in South Curve, IN, has declined 43% since the introduction of schoolhouse uniforms in 2006; and a 2017 survey found that 82% of the current students opposed uniforms. [92] A peer-reviewed report past researchers at the University of Nevada at Reno institute that 90% of seventh and 8th grade public schoolhouse students did not like wearing uniforms. [25] In the year following the introduction of mandatory school uniforms to the Long Beach (CA) Unified School Commune, 81% of centre schoolhouse students said uniforms did not reduce fights, 76% said they did not assist them fit in at schoolhouse, 69% said they did not make them feel more than connected with the school customs, and 71% said they felt no safer traveling to and from schoolhouse. [64]

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Con 8

Uniforms may accept a detrimental effect on students' self-image.

When students take to habiliment the aforementioned outfits, rather than being allowed to select apparel that suit their trunk types, they tin can endure embarrassment at school. Kid and teen development specialist Robyn Silverman told NBC News' Today that students, especially girls, tend to compare how each other looks in their uniforms: "As a body image good, I hear from students all the time that they feel it allows for a lot of comparison… Then if you have a body that'south a plus-size body, a curvier body, a very tall body, a very short body, those girls often feel that they don't look their best." [21] A study by researchers at Arizona State Academy establish that "students from schools without uniforms reported higher self-perception scores than students from schools with compatible policies." [24] Some students also find uniforms less comfortable than their regular dress, which may non exist conducive to learning. [75]

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Con nine

Focusing on uniforms takes attending abroad from finding genuine solutions to problems in education.

Spending time and effort implementing uniform policies may detract from more than constructive efforts to reduce crime in schools and heave student operation. More than substantive improvements to public education could be achieved with smaller class sizes, tightened security, increased parental involvement, improved facilities, and other measures. [12] [14] Tom Houlihan, onetime Superintendent of Schools in Oxford, NC, stated that school uniforms "are a distraction from focusing on systematic and fundamental transformation to improve our schools." [42]

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Con 10

The push for schoolhouse uniforms is driven by commercial interests rather than educational ones.

Americans spend effectually $1 billion on school uniforms every year. [43] [74] Retailer J.C. Penney Co. says school uniforms are "a huge, of import business for united states." [44] In one year lonely, compatible company Lands' End spent $3 meg on marketing efforts directed at public schools and districts. [14] Multiple studies used to promote the effectiveness of uniforms were partly funded by Lands' End, and at least one of those studies is "then wholly flawed as to render itself useless," according to David Fifty. Brunsma, PhD. [xiv] [32] Reuters reported that retailers were "sensing their opportunity… stepping upwardly competition in the uniform aisles and online. Walmart has set up 'compatible shops' or temporary boutiques inside some stores." [74]

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Con 11

Parents should be free to choose their children's clothes without government interference.

I of the founders of the Wilson County (LA) Parents Coalition, Richard Dashkovitz, stated: "It'southward time we allow the government know that nosotros are fed up with this. Quit dictating to usa what my child should wear… [T]he government is intruding into our private lives, roles as parents and the lives of our children." [16] Co-ordinate to another parents' rights grouping, Asserting Parental Rights — It'due south Our Duty, mandatory uniform "policies trample parents' right to raise children without regime interference." [10]

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Con 12

School uniforms in public schools undermine the hope of a gratuitous education by imposing an extra expense on families.

Parents already pay taxes, and they withal demand to buy regular apparel for their children to wear when they're out of schoolhouse and for dress-down days. The Children's Commission on Poverty (Great britain) establish that over "95% of parents on low incomes reported difficulties in meeting school-related costs," including uniforms, despite their children attending tuition-free schools. [94] Anderson, IN, parents Laura and Scott Bell their children's school over its uniform policy, saying the $641 for their children'southward uniforms broke the guarantee of a free public pedagogy. [10] In York County, PA, a local NBC chapter reported that some children were missing class because their families couldn't afford to buy the required uniforms. [84]

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Con 13

Schoolhouse uniforms may delay the transition into adulthood.

Adults make their own clothing choices and accept the freedom to limited themselves through their appearance. Denying children and teenagers the opportunity to brand those choices may make them ill-prepared for the adult earth. [76] [75] Adolescents see clothing choices as a ways of identification, and seeking an identity is 1 of the critical stages of adolescence, according to the late developmental psychologist Erik Erikson. [fourscore] [79]

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Did You Know?
1. The offset school district in the United states to require all K-8 students to wear uniforms was Long Embankment, CA, in January. 1994. [50] [14]
2. Americans spend around $1 billion per year on schoolhouse uniforms. [43] [74]
3. Students at Eton, one of England's most prestigious schools, were required to habiliment blackness peak hats and tails on and off campus until 1972. [xiv]
four. US schools with a minority student population of l% or more than are four times every bit probable to crave uniforms than schools with a minority population of xx-49%, and 24 times more likely than schools with minority populations of 5%-xix%. [78]
v. A government bureau in Sweden declared that mandatory school uniforms were a human rights violation, stating that students should decide their dress and appearance as "a matter of the individual's freedom and integrity." [39]

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