It’s hard to find kids who like wearing a school uniform. “It stinks,” said 11-year-old Hoboken Catholic School student Eladio Nieves as he tugged on his tie with both hands last week. “They’re itchy. They’re hot. And they make it hard to move around.” It’s also hard to find a parent that does not think that uniforms might ease some of the pressures – social and economic – that their children face at school. “I fear that my daughter is going to face a lot of pressure to wear designer this and designer that in school,” said Karen Toner as she strolled uptown with Zoe, her 2-year-old daughter. “Uniforms would level the playing field in schools in a lot of ways. They would take away the importance of clothing.” Into this difficult-to-bridge gap the Hoboken Board of Education began to wade this week as it considers introducing a voluntary school uniform system to the city’s public schools. At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, board members decided to send a questionnaire to parents in the coming weeks to solicit their views on the subject. Depending on the feed back, officials say that they could introduce a pilot school uniform project in some grades of some schools as early as next year. “Right now we have a situation where we have kids walking around school with their pants falling down and their underwear exposed,” said David Anthony, the board’s president. “The kids love it. But it is not inspiring the sort of educational environment we would like. Uniforms would provide a little more structure.” “We also have a city that is divided economically,” Anthony continued. “And there are a lot of kids who have to have the sneakers that light up and beep or that cost $150. That puts a lot of pressure on the parents and the kids that maybe we can avoid.” Adopting a voluntary school uniform code would have other advantages too. Officials point out that students who skip school and come to Hoboken to cause trouble would be easy to pick out during school hours. They also might help students develop more self-esteem and more respect for their school. “Look at football players in school,” said Anthony. “They love to wear their jerseys. It’s a source of pride for them. School uniforms can give every student that same sense of pride in their school and themselves.” Teeny-boppers But some board members felt that uniforms would only be appropriate for younger children. “If I ever told my teenage daughter that she would have to wear a uniform, she would kill me,” said Perry Belfiore, who serves on the board with Anthony. “I think it could work well in lower grades like Pre-K and Kindergarten, but it starts to fall apart in the upper grades. The only way it really works is if it is mandatory.” Although the board appears to be reticent to introduce a mandatory school uniform policy, a number of parents interviewed this week said they thought that was a reasonable way to go. “I think it should be mandatory,” said Monica Hetterich, mother of 2-year-old Hannah. “I had to wear a uniform when I went to school and I hated it. I never would have done it if I didn’t have to. But now, looking back on it, I think it was a good thing.” Officials say that they would like to adopt a school uniform system that would not severely restrict students’ dress choices. They might, for example, allow students to choose from ten types of shirts that display the school colors, or several different types of khakis and skirts. Many students who wear uniforms to school say that they like to have some choice about what they can wear. “I don’t really mind wearing a uniform because I can choose between a skirt or pants,” said Kimberly Hudock, an 11-year-old student at Hoboken Catholic School. “Being able to choose makes it a lot better.” School board officials say that if a uniform policy is adopted, they may start a school store where students could shop for uniforms. “A school store would be a place where kids could come and trade things in, or find reasonably priced clothes to wear,” Anthony said. “Obviously we are not trying to start a monopoly for ourselves, so we would probably choose some sort of brand name clothes to serve as the uniform that would be easy to find in 100 different places.” No thanks Students interviewed at Hoboken High School scoffed at the idea of wearing uniforms. “This is a public school,” said Ricky Walker, a 19-year-old senior. “It doesn’t seem right to have to wear a uniform at school in a public school, especially in the spring when it starts to get hot.” Natalie Velez, an 18-year-old senior who was standing nearby, argued that the uniforms would not serve their purpose anyway. “There is no point,” she said. “Everybody doesn’t feel the pressure to wear fancy clothes. Half of them come to school in sweat pants and sneakers. And besides, no matter what they are supposed to wear, most of the boys are still going to come to school with their pants sagging and the girls are going to wear their skirts short. That’s just the way it is.” School board officials recognize that selling the school uniform system to students will be difficult. “We’re thinking of calling them ‘school colors’ because ‘school uniforms’ has such a negative connotation with the kids,” said Anthony. “We recognize that if this is going to be successful we can’t just tell them what to wear. We don’t want to force-feed them this.”
School uniforms? Ed. board solicits feedback on idea
