The battle may be large or small but when it comes to keeping, maintaining or gaining freedom no battle should be dismissed.
Two years ago when my son entered high school he brought home a piece of paper detailing Riverdale High School’s “Dress Code”. It immediately raised a red flag when I read that only a single brand of pants would be considered acceptable.
After having verified with the school that it was not a typo and was in fact correct that only the Dickie brand would be considered as acceptable and voicing my concern to the administrator who answered my call about the over stepping of authority to set policy I then proceeded to email and call my local school board representative, Patrick Tovrea.
Mr. Rivera was quick to respond and called me as a result of either the voicemail I’d left or the email I’d sent. He heard my concerns and seemed to agree with them and said he would investigate further.
A short time later I received a call from Ms Carpenter who identified herself as Riverdale High School’s Principal. After giving me a lecture on why a “uniformed” dress code was needed and that she had written the dress code personally (her words), she wanted to know what I was objecting to.
After first explaining that I successfully went to public schools and received a decent education without the need for a “uniformed” dress code, that I had no objection to the uniform requirement itself, but did believe that mandating a particular and a singular brand of pants was unconstitutional as being overly restrictive.
We went back and forth about it but she eventually agreed that as long as the pants were the correct shade of khakis, she would have no problem with whatever brand my son wore.
Shortly after that call, Mr Rivera called back to confirm my concerns were taken care of. I said as long as she does not try to enforce the Dickie brand policy as we agreed, I was satisfied.
Two years later without any issues, my son tells me “the Disciplinary person came into his class and told him his pants were not of the correct brand allowed by the dress code”. However that was all she said. No actions were taken at that time. I told him that if anything came of it I would handle it.
Yesterday, the Disciplinarian notified him that he was to attend a lunchtime detention. I instructed him to disregard and if told anything further to respectfully tell them to call me that he was following my request.
I emailed ‘s Carpenter requesting in writing an exception to (her) Riverdale High School’s Dress Code as per the Jefferson Parrish School Board Policy.
Waiting for a response.
At last check the website was updated between two years ago and now to show “preferred” instead of being the only brand. However, seems the Disciplinarian is not away of the “preferred” status change.
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