MANSFIELD — Mansfield City students, staff and administrators spent nearly three hours Tuesday night making a case against campus wear.
The Mansfield City school board then rejected a proposal to eliminate it — at least for now.
Chief academic officer Stephen Rizzo and high school English teacher Joshua Cunningham presented the proposal, which came from a steering committee of administrators and teachers. The committee also took into account concerns shared by high school students in a recent school-wide survey.
Mansfield City Schools first implemented its campus wear requirement for high school students when the new Mansfield Senior High School building opened in 2005. The requirement was extended to middle school students during a grade reconfiguration in 2010.
The district only requires school uniforms at Mansfield Middle and Mansfield Senior High School; students at the district’s elementary schools, Malabar Intermediate and Spanish Immersion school all follow a dress code.
Rizzo and Cunningham recommended dropping campus wear requirements at the middle school and high school and replacing them with a dress code. Numerous teachers, students and parents spoke in favor of the proposal.
Brad Strong, president of the Mansfield School Employees Association, said the campus wear issue grew more urgent last month, after high school principal Robert McQuate sent an email to teachers, telling them to strictly enforce campus wear rules or face discipline under school board policy.
McQuate declined to comment on the email.
“There was 1,008 (discipline) referrals in the last five days at Mansfield Senior High School because of kids being out of campus wear,” Strong said. “It’s taking their time out of the class and that shouldn’t be.”
Strong said teachers responded to the email by looking more closely at the school board’s dress code. Many were surprised by what they read. Strong said administrators have implemented some changes over the years, so the board policy no longer matched what students and staff had come to expect.
“The policies kept getting watered down over time,” he said.
Various exemptions have been implemented over the years, including allowances for “spirit wear,” some athletic uniforms and clothing required for certain career technical education programs. Students who had a grade point average of 3.0 or higher have also been allowed to don non-campus wear clothing as a reward over the past three years, Rizzo noted.
Junior Kalia Addington said all that changed a few weeks ago. Addington, who qualified for the 3.0 GPA exemption, said she had to buy a new pair of campus wear pants because she’d grown out of her old ones. They cost $40. They’re currently her only pair of campus wear pants, so she washes them nightly.
Senior Zyquia Manns received a disciplinary referral that turned into a detention because she didn’t have her student ID card with her.
“I have all As and a B on my grade card and I’m getting in trouble for not having my ID card,” she said.
Kaiya Bookman said she believes teachers are cracking down out of fear.
“I’ve seen teachers who I’ve never seen write up any kind of detentions or anything before, start writing people up,” she said. “They feel as though their jobs are threatened just because of what a student shows up wearing.”
Students said discussions about campus wear are taking up class time, sometimes whole class periods.
“It’s getting in the way of our academic success. It’s not a minor issue,” said junior Michael Seveigny. “This has been going on for months and it’s something that’s really divided the school.”
James White, a high school history teacher, said enforcement is making it harder to connect with students.
“Our students do want to build relationships. They like talking to us,” he said. “When I have to start my day talking about campus wear with my students, it’s hard for me to build those relationships.
“Any genuine concern or care I have for my students is overshadowed by campus wear. That’s how every day starts.”
Rizzo pointed out that campus wear can be costly for families. The school district provides each student with up to two pairs of pants using grant funds, but the money doesn’t go far enough.
Only three board members were present for the meeting. Renda Cline, Gary Feagin and Sheryl Weber all voiced their support for campus wear.
“My idea of having campus wear is so that everybody feels like they are a part of (something),” Cline said. “It’s not a punishment. It’s so that everybody knows, we’re all in this together.”
Cline also expressed concern that students whose families couldn’t afford designer, status symbol clothing may suffer under a non-campus wear dress code. She said she still remembers the hurt she felt in junior high school when her friends told her the jeans she’d gotten for Christmas weren’t real Jordache jeans.
“That is real and in a district where we have housing and food insecurity, I don’t really think that we should argue about the uniform that they wear during the time that they’re here to learn,” she said.
Weber said she wore a school uniform growing up and liked the fact that everyone looked the same.
“I like to see our students in campus wear. I think it’s a good idea,” she said. “The idea behind it was is so that parents wouldn’t have the burden of getting expensive clothes, as Mrs. Cline said, those trendy clothes.”
Weber, a former teacher and administrator in the district, pointed out that campus wear was supposed to be phased in for the entire district after it was introduced at the high school in 2005.
“That was the plan and somehow we got off that plan,” she said.
Students pushed back against concerns that allowing non-campus wear clothing would hurt low-income kids.
“Many people don’t care as much about fashion trends and fitting in. We’re more concerned with being ourselves,” Bookman said.
“We’re individuals and we’re supposed to learn how to grow, change and express ourselves. I think that by saying, ‘Oh, you guys all have to look the same.’ It’s just it’s not going to allow room for that growth and that change to occur.”
Junior Dazey Manns suggested the school’s campus wear room could be transformed into a clothes closet for students in need, similar to The New Store.
Board members also questioned the timing of the proposal, saying it would be more appropriate to re-examine and revised dress policy ahead of the upcoming school year.
“I think that is the time to look at the dress code, but tonight I don’t believe it’s the time to do that,” Feagin said.
“I think that we should be given the opportunity to look at it for the summer and then go into the 2023-24 season with that. Times have changed and we need to change with it, but I don’t like someone giving me two weeks or three weeks to look at something.”
Board members, along with Supt. Stan Jefferson, said they supported the creation of a formal committee to further investigate the issue.
“What I took away from tonight is the need to do additional engagement — it can be in a larger group — and bring that recommendation back,” Rizzo said.
“I understand it’s a lot to digest in one sitting. Campus wear has been in place for almost two decades and has been modified over the years.”
After nearly three hours of comments, all in favor of the proposal, Cline asked for a motion to approve the proposal.
Weber made a motion, but it received no second, so there was no vote.
Strong called it “a swing and a miss” for the school board.
“It doesn’t take months to think about this stuff,” he said. “They all recognize it’s broken. Why would we not deal with it?
Board members said they remain open to suggestions from a future steering committee.
“We want to make sure that education is the priority for school. Whatever that policy looks like, it definitely needs to be inclusive and make all students feel like they have a safe environment to learn and grow,” Cline said. “I’m open to possibilities.”
