School uniforms could replace Tommy and Nautica in Mount Healthy's two middle schools next fall.

        North and South middle schools will propose mandatory uniforms as part of their schools' continuous improvement plans, which will go to the city's school board for approval early next year.

All students wear uniforms in Adrienne Martin's class at Lafayette Bloom middle school in the West End. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

        “We believe it will increase safety,” said Ted Bieresdorfer, a North Middle School teacher and head of the Student Safety and Discipline Committee. “Obviously after we had a student bring a gun to school, we had a lot of parents express concerns about that,” he said. A student fired a gun into the ceiling of a classroom on Sept. 18. He concealed the gun by carrying it in oversize pants covered by a long shirt.

        A written survey sent to all district parents of current sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders showed that 80 percent of respondents preferred uniforms.

        Mr. Bieresdorfer and North Principal Eugene Blalock held an informational meeting with parents Tuesday night. Mr. Blalock told 10 parents that some students miss school or leave early to get the latest fashions, such as Air Jordans.

        “Basically our goal is to get our students coming to school focused on learning. It will level the playing field. It will get students thinking about school and not what they have.”

        Dawn Drayton, parent of a seventh-grade boy at North, said she thinks uniforms are a great idea.

        “Let's teach kids how to dress and prepare them for the real world,” Ms. Drayton said. Her children went to church school for two years and wore uniforms there. “It created a totally different environment.”

        The Long Beach Unified School District in California was the first public district in the United States to mandate uniforms, in 1994. Since then, other public school districts across the country have followed suit.

        Thirty-seven Cincinnati Public Schools have adopted uniform programs since the district decided in 1996 to allow individual schools the option of requiring or encouraging uniforms.

        Anthony Smith, principal at Lafayette Bloom Back on Track Accelerated Middle School in the West End, is a big believer in standardized school dress.

        It's improved discipline and school performance, he says of the 2-year-old policy at Bloom.

        The idea jelled last year during interviews with 825 students. “Many of the kids, not all but many of the kids, failed before simply because they were too embarrassed,” Mr. Smith said. “They didn't have the latest styles and fashions, so they didn't go to school. The peer pressure is incredible.”

        Parents and children at Bloom must sign contracts that they'll follow the policy. “Parents love the whole idea,” he said. “With the uniform policy, attendance actually improved because the kids know what they're going to wear.”

        What's more, he sees a direct correlation with behavior. “Discipline is reduced. You know where kids have so many conflicts with other kids? That's reduced.”

        It's harder to establish a uniform policy in a middle school than an elementary school, he said, but it can even be done in a high school, where students usually want independence in choosing clothes.

        Keith King, assistant professor of health promotion, University of Cincinnati, has researched the effects of school uniforms on behavior.

        He says uniforms, as part of a comprehensive anti-violence program, help. Long Beach school officials said fights, weapons offenses, sex offenses, assault and battery, and vandalism decreased when the school launched several programs to prevent violence including uniforms.

        A dress code alone is not enough, he said.
       

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