So there’s research that shows (by some measures) that student achievement goes (way) up with the enforcement of a uniform dress code. And that’s not a bad thing- it deals with some of the income inequality and whatnot that can get ugly in schools.
But suspending the kid for it? That seems counter to the spirit- I mean, if the dress code is there to better student achievement, isn’t removing the kid from the school kind of… dumb?
I mean, how much learning is she getting done during that suspension?
And why don’t they have a “loaner” pile around for stuff like this?
I just read our dress code for our local NJ town. I’ma just say don’t be lumping this whole state together, we don’t really have one other than “no flip flops, no hats, don’t dress like a mook.”
That said, this is a stupid, stupid dress code policy. Green is green, move on administrators.
Not deleting, just adding this as everyone feels the need to comment: yes, I think its dumb and over reaching. Sheesh, enough already. I’m not the principal, I didn’t send the kid home!
I mean, sure it seems silly… but if you don’t want to follow uniform rules don’t send your kids to a school with uniforms?
This just smacks of a a particular entitlement that I call “Rules are for other people”.
“I mean, if you start letting certain things slide, then you have to let a lot of things slide, and then everyone is pretty much wearing what they want to wear,” she said.
Is this called the Rick Santorum argument…?
My kid goes to a private school with uniforms and I don’t think they are that picky on colors…
I would agree if the color was pink. “Dark Green” is subjective. At worst it deserves a “sorry, that shirt doesn’t comply” note, not a suspension.
ETA - also I think that is a public school - so you don’t have options to send somewhere else.
Precisely. #ShitIsFuckedUpAndBullshit.
I wonder if one of the parents has blue/green colorblindness and couldn’t realistically do a color check on the daughter before school?
Maybe? I really don’t feel like digging up school zone maps. 
BUT “Kelly Green” is not “dark green”, not in a million years. (This is going to turn into a blue/black dress debate I’m sure.)
Here’s the problem: The debate here (in a logical world) would be to compare the amount of learning in either of the following conditions:
a. At school, in the “right” color shirt
b. At home, in pajamas
Answer: A. So, yeah. A note home and a shirt from the loaner pile and we’re good to go.
When does blue turn into navy blue? When you compare the two it is often clear, but when you have the two by themselves it is less clear. Color gestalts are weird like that.
I dunno, my book is “close enough”. If doesn’t appear they were trying to circumvent the rules, and thus I don’t see why there should be any punishment. A note saying this wasn’t inline with the dress code should have been more than enough.
Also, it is possible her dad bought it and suffers from red/green color blindness, which would affect one’s perception of how green it was. And like I said, if you only had one green shirt on the rack, it is going to look darker by itself than if you compared it to a darker colored shirt.
Responding to you both cuz you’re both saying the same thing. 
To clarify: do I think its ridiculous? Yes. Do I understand why the school did it? Yes.
I see both sides, I’ve worked at schools that had uniforms for students (college scrubs) and if you didn’t have your scrubs you didn’t get to do clinic that day and you lost marks.
Is it dumb, could it be handled differently? Sure, everything can always be improved.
I just don’t see it as that big a deal as everyone else I guess.
I have no problem with a dress code…if the school is going to provide the fucking clothes. Otherwise it’s just a heyday for petty tyrants and discrimination against poor people.
There you go, gettin’ all rhetorical on us!!! 
Yes, it’s dumb and news because it’s too much punitive. And we hates seeing the babbes getting punished for so much little stupid stuff.
Now, if she wore the wrong green AND STABBED A TEACHER, then we’d be all like, dumbass kid of course she’s a criminal; she wears the wrong green.
Then don’t send your kid to school in the wrong shirt. 
Saying that’s not acceptable would be pretty standard in the UK and a lot of other countries that use uniforms.
They wouldn’t get suspended for it though unless the parents were complete arseholes (if they couldn’t afford it they would be helped) and kept sending the kid into school in the wrong uniform.
This.
See the article where the Mom admitted the conversation with the principal “got a little heated”.
I’m of the opinion that school suspensions should be reserved for pretty disruptive behavior. Playground fistfights without weapons, that sort of thing. (See how old and 70s-influenced I am?) Maybe wearing a t-shirt that reads “Fuck Mister Weatherbee” or similar.
Near misses on the Pantone scale are not even a little bit disruptive. My kids attend a charter school that for some unfathomable reason requires the kids to wear green, orange, purple, or white shirts. We figured out early on that the model student must share a wardrobe with this guy:
Anyway, I’m opposed to uniforms in general, so I’ve chosen to ignore this particular rule until someone makes a stink about it, upon which I’ll make my own stink right back. Of all methods employed to keep kids in line, dress codes strike me as among the stupidest.
Santorum always involves a slippery slope.
More of a chute.
