NCJ Number
162870
Journal
Journal of Juvenile Law Volume: 16 Dated: (1995) Pages: 13-36
Date Published
1995
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This article examines the question of whether public school dress codes, adopted to stem gang-related activities, violate children's constitutional rights.
Abstract
The article addresses the conflict between a public school's interest in providing a safe environment conducive to learning and children's constitutional protections under the First Amendment Freedom of Speech, and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Historically, schools have prescribed dress code standards for students based upon what they believed was acceptable. Today, the motivation is frequently elimination of gang activity within schools. Some schools have gone further, and require public school students to wear a uniform. The author concludes that, because present policy requires voluntary compliance, it does not appear to violate any constitutional protections. But, this policy seems to be a temporary solution to more pressing societal problems concerning widespread violence. Even temporary solutions should not depart significantly from the philosophy that a free and appropriate public education is designed to be a marketplace for ideas; and homogeneity will not curtail violence, as pure symbolic speech cannot be abridged absent a threat of a material disruption. Footnotes