School Uniform Debate

Introduction:
A. Attention grabbing device: “Every year, 3 million young people in the United States fall victim to crimes at school. Almost 2 million of these incidents involve violence. Although most school violence takes the form of minor assaults, some episodes are far more serious. Some end in tragedy. For example, in two recent academic years, a total of 85 young people died violently in U.S. schools. Seventy-five percent of these incidents involved firearms.” That statement came from the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Updated as of 2012. According to the Book of School Policies published by the Opposing viewpoints series, In 2002 a high school student named Joseph Fredrick had came to one of his school's sporting events with a 14 feet banner that displayed, "Bong Hits Jesus". This prompted an illegal substance that is not only highly offensive religious wise, but is also highly disruptive and inappropriate. YOU MAY THINK THIS WAS NO WHERE NEAR AS DISRUPTIVE AS BRINGING IN A WEAPON, BUT IT IS FAR MORE COMMON AND ACTUALLY JUST AS DISRUPTIVE. Joseph's case was brought to the Supreme Court BECAUSE HE ARGUED THAT HE HAD THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH TO SAY WHAT HE WANTED, BUT they had ruled against his case.
B. Proposition Statement: From this event we were able to gather evidences and reasons why we are for the idea of school uniforms. When we say school uniforms we are indicating that the school board for each district has the ability to choose the uniforms for their corresponding schools. This goes for students from grades 6-12 in public schools. The main ideas of school uniforms are to provide students protection and a strong education.
C. Team Statement: Our motto is Building a tradition of excellence. Focusing on learning and not on fashion.
D. Case Side: Through the duration of this speech I will be covering the significant on how standards are raised due to modern day apparel, and Harms due to the current dress code. To follow up with that, my partner Vivian Dang will be covering the Inherency of how school uniforms prepare students for the future and solvency in creating a sense of belonging. Afterwards my other partner, Amasia Gordon will to be handing one of our cross examination plus the conclusion to our debate. That leaves my final team member, Eric Bosh to be doing the other cross examination.
II. Significant:
A. First Reason: School uniforms demands more responsibility and discipline from students which leads to standards being raised.
1. Evidence: Many school administrators and parents believe that uniforms create a better learning environment at school. On April 23, 2008 According to School Administration Publication, along with school-reported statics, "The mandate of uniforms on campuses has reduced suspensions and discipline referrals." Also On March 5, 2013, the vice Principal of Chanhassen High School, Mr. Swarington Said, “From what I have observed at our school dances, Students who are dressed more formal tend to carry themselves better. For Instance when we host Prom every year, the girls and the guys that are more dressed up tend to act much more mature and carry themselves as if they are adults in the business world. I also notice that during the dances like the Halloween and Pajama Dance that we had this year, 2012-2013, that some of the girls dress must more on the “skimpy” side." Also the U. S Department of Education, the NECS, ECS, NAESP, took a pole form a school in Florida on July 22, 2012 showing that the 95% of the staff members voted that ever since they created a new uniform policy that they have notice student's behavior has been increased.
B. Second Reason: This leads me to my next point. School Uniforms has been known to improve many student's attendance rate as well as their educational status.
1. Evidence: According to Grace Chen, an avid education researcher from "Review of School Uniform" stated, On April 22, 2013, " With School Uniforms, students are not distracted by how they look and therefore, spend more time learning at school." From Action 19 New, Updated Tuesday, the 14th of October 2003," A study of six big-city Ohio public schools showed students who were required to wear uniforms had improved graduation, behavior and attendance rates." A researcher, Virginia Draa from Youngstown State University concluded from her research, "From 1994 to 2002 at 64 different high schools in Ohio, like Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, and etc. The graduation rate rose nearly 11% at schools that require uniforms, compared to pre-uniform schools increased. Non-uniform school's average graduation rate dropped 4.6% compared with the earlier years." This study was updated in the fall of 2005. This demonstrated the significance of school uniforms because it discuses some of today's modern educational issues that has not been completely solved.
III. Harms:
A. First Reason: One of the major damage of not having school uniform is, that it gives students the freedom to dress how they want with out caution that they could highly offend other students races, religious faith, sexual orientation and promoting the idea of illegal substances.
1. Evidence: Given the limited resources and legal authority, many schools are using dress codes and uniform policies as an attempt to structure an environment to enhance and develop their school structure. Past schools, parents and students have clashed over the issue regarding to student's attire. According to 1998 Educational Longitude Study, Written by Marian Wilde. "In 2007, a case involving an anti-bush t-shirt in San Diego and Tigger Stocks in Napa California made their way to court." This site was updated in 2010. The pool from the US Department of Education poll also showed that sex offenses were reduced by 96% with the start up of school uniform. Another example are students who are minors that do not obtain the same amount of rights of freedom as an adult, displaying bracelets and necklaces about the use of Marijuana, an illegal substance for minors stating “I HEART DOOBIES”, “LEGALIZE IT” and so forth, as it is influencing other minors to result in attempting to partake in such illegal actions.
B. Second Reason: Another downfall of not having school uniform is, some student's outfit choices may causes conflicts by possible promoting gangs and violence in general.
1. Evidence: “Every year, 3 million young people in the United States fall victim to crimes at school. Almost 2 million of these incidents involve violence. Although most school violence takes the form of minor assaults, some episodes are far more serious.” This was found on March 7, 2013 from the Constitutional Rights Foundation, which was updated in 2010. The idea of having a school uniform policy is to diminish dress-related problems and crimes relating to gangs because of student's attire. Mr. Swearington, Vice Principal of Chanhassen High School, stated as of March 3, 2013, "I've worked in a high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota and at that school I highly supported School Uniforms. This was because of the large amounts of gang violence. Students who went to this High School would often wear or display a different gang symbol to simply start riots and fights. They would do this to disturb the educational program." In Long Beach, California, students, teachers, parents, and school officials worked together to establish a uniform code for all middle schools.The Long Beach program involves 58,000 students and includes assistance for families that cannot afford to buy uniforms. “In many Long Beach schools, graduating students donate or sell their used uniforms to needy families. In the year following the establishment of the uniform policy, Long Beach school officials found that overall school crime decreased 91 percent. Fights decreased 51 percent, sex offenses decreased 74 percent, weapons offenses decreased 50 percent, assault and battery offenses decreased 34 percent, and vandalism decreased 18 percent, all due to having a school dress code policy. ” These statistics all came from the July 22, 2012 poll on school uniforms taken by the Us Department of Education, NCES, ECS, and etc.These showed some of the examples of the harms due to know a school uniform policy

IV. Inherency:
A. First Reason: It is known that the first impression is always the most important and a person's first impression is not from talking to someone directly, it is from their appearance. Society has taught children from a very young age to not judge a book by its cover; or a person by his or her appearances. Even though everyone one has been taught this lesson repeatedly. There is a part in the complex human brain that subconsciously causes a person to automatically judge another person by his or her appearances and the way they carry themselves. This part of the brain is identified as the Frontal Lobe. The Frontal Lobe of a brain is responsible for personality, judgments, and behavior choices. This information was found November 9, 2013 written by: Lia Standard and authority for this article was from her Bachelor's degree in neuroscience. (Livestrong.com)
1. Evidence: Based on today's society, kids and teens are being judged by the cloths and the way that they are dress. According to Rebecca Lopez, a Journalist of Negro Education, updated on the fall of 2003, stated, "Uniforms will be able to eliminate the pressure of trying to dress to fit in for students so that they can focus solemnly on their education." With the abstain of a school uniform it can and will cause violence breakouts in schools just to have the designer clothing or trainers, which is why one of the primary reasons schools started to adopt a school uniform policy.”This can be verified in the OREGON LEGISLATIVE POLICY, RESEARCH, and COMMITTEE SERVICES, documented/ updated on October of 1998. This was an actual case meeting that was taken place in the state of Oregon. Please make note that this case went from 1995 to 1998. And I would like to make a quick point about the date of my source, before the opposing team tries to argue that this source is outdated. You see that this source was not meant to relevant to this date, today. It was meant to be relevant to a time when school uniforms were starting to develop and decided on where it should be a law or not. This goes to my next quote as well. President Clinton stated, in 1996, when school uniforms were still new and when it was beginning to evolve, "If it means teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, and focus on the educational value of school, then our public school should be able to require their students to wear uniforms.” On november 27, 2011 from a Newspaper called Discover Daily, under the title,”School Uniforms Helping Students for the Future” quoted, Erin Design, a freshman at Dominican high school, who attended Holy Family grade school “thinks that the reason schools enforce uniform policies is because they want their schools to look presentable. It is also because they want their students to focus on learning, not what themselves or other people are wearing.” Also Laura Koppa, who is the mother of two kids attending Holy Family, and her two kids attending Marquette high school, also agrees. She thinks that the reason for uniforms is to reduce the competition of clothes; it is to eliminate the distraction caused by “who’s wearing what.”This brings me back to our team statement, "Building a tradition of excellent. Focusing on education, not on fashion."
B. Second Reason: This brings me to my next point. You see,the main issue is, the government does not supply us with any specific, written, law on a school dress code policy. It only tells us that the school district has the ability to create a dress code for its school. Because of this, we now have a problem with dressing appropriately for school.
1. Evidence: Think about this right now, if a student can not simply learn to dress appropriately for school, then how will they learn or know how to dress appropriate for the future businesses such as a job interview or a job itself. With students being able to not care about their appearance, they will be stuck in that mentality especially in the real world that appearance “doesn’t” matter. In almost every single work force there is a dress code policy. There are even dress code policies for occupations such as mechanics, waiter/waitress plumber, and etc. To be even more specific, I personally interviewed women who works at the Chanhassen TCF bank on March 16, 2013 named Mary, She requested that I not have access to her last name for personal reasons. I asked her, “ Is there a specific dress code policy that the employees who works for TFC Banks must follow and if so, what is it.” Mary’s response was, “Yes, of course we have a dress code policy, almost every work force has one. Monday through Friday, woman are to dress business like only, such as high heels, fancy shirts with black pants or clean, no cut dark jean. Mens are suppose to wear a dress shirt with a tie, black dress pants, and dress shoes. Saturdays are a more “casual” day for us. We are to wear our place polo shirt with our TCF logo on it and clean pants (by clean she means, not rips, tear, worn out, or low rise). The reason why Saturdays are more casual for us is, we believe it is important that we have a day for our employee to feel more comfortable at work while still obtaining the professional image.” I also had the opportunity to interview, Mrs. Emily Mattran on March 15, 2013.Mrs Mattran works at the CRC in Chanhassen High School. She said, “ The way someone dresses for a job or an Interview shows respect for the employer and the customer. Depending on how appropriate one looks it can show a sense of trust and intelligents. For example would you trust someone for reliable information if they were dressed in short shorts and a tank top or in a nice clean business suit?”If there is a dress code policy for the business field, then why is it that there is still a large sum of school that do not have a uniform of some sort? After all schools main priority is support to be providing students with a strong education and to prepare them for the future.
I. Solvency
A. First Reason: Our course of action to fix all of these problems are to inform school districts to enforce the idea of school Uniforms and take it into consideration.

1. Evidence: With school uniforms enforced, it will definitely create a more comfortable environment for students that attend their schools that will not be judging others or being judged constantly based off appearance. With uniforms, it would wipe away typical high school categorized groups such as the “jocks”, the “preps”, the “emos”, the “nerds”, the “goths” and the “hipsters” all based off of others judging on appearances. This can also help parents so that they don’t have to worry about if they are supplying their kids with the “right” kind of clothing to fit in. Plus this will eliminate their children wanting to keep up with the new trends or high end fashions that only last for no more than a couple of months. With uniforms, students from a low socio economic background will not be bullied because of their financial issues, they as well don’t have to worry about spending more money on clothes, so they will actually be saving money. No matter what, the low socioeconomic students will still be receiving the same level of education as the high socio economic students. Dorthy Snider stated in 2011, in the Evansville Courier Press said, “I am in favor for school uniforms. To me as a child, it gave us all a sense pride and i had felt as if i belonged.. We were there to be educated, and my dear mother, even though we were poor, she was still able to dress us accordingly.” We understand that students will wish for days there they do not have to wear uniforms so we are requiring that the school districts provide students with days where they don’t have to wear their uniforms. On these days student are allowed to wear whatever they please as long it follows all of the regular school dress code policies. We also understand that schools will have spirit day, so that we do not infer with these special days. We plan to still have the spirit days and on these days students will be allowed to dress up. Once again the dress codes policies still apply with the only exception of not having the uniform itself. Teachers on these days will just monitor the student's choice of clothing and if it is inappropriate or disrupt in any way then the student must call home for a change of clothing. Finally we also realize that not all school will have the same climate, and to fix this problem the school must provide long and short sleeved shirts and pants so that the student can pick which one to wear depending on the weather.

V. Conclusion:
A. Summary Statement: So from the information that we have just presented to you today, we strongly believe that school districts should take the idea of a school uniform policy into consideration of being enforced and regulated into schools.
B. Restate the Proposition Statement: Once again, when we say school uniforms we are indicating that the school board for each district has the ability to choose the uniforms for their corresponding schools. This goes for students from grades 6-12 in public schools. The main ideas of school uniforms are to provide students protection and a strong education with as little distraction as possible.
C. Clincher: Do you ever look at your parent's year book and are proud of what they wore at the time? In about 20-30 years from now, when your kids look at your yearbook, would you be proud of what you were wearing at the time? This will not be preparing our and our children's future. How far must we go until we realize that one day there will be a huge price to pay?

Counterclaim:
“The penalties for "minors" (persons under age of 18) who violate federal, state, or municipal laws are not the same as the penalties for "adults" (persons 18 or older) who violate the same law. For example, if you are a minor and you have been caught with the possession of alcohol, the first referral that you may have is a bailable $150 dollar fee and a possible court appearance. For an “adult” (once again the age of 18 and over, can be placed in Jail or imprisonment and/ or a $2,500 fine for the violation.”This evidence was updated in NOvember of 2009, from Salt Lake County Division of YOuth Services.The salt Lake County Division of Youth Services are a part of a nation wide safe place network. From this you can see that a minor does not have full rights as an adult will have.