Harsh District Dress Code Prompts ACLU Action

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Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 3/7/2007

Students attending the Watson Chapel School District near Pine Bluffs, AR, face a particularly harsh dress code, according to a lawsuit in Little Rock U.S. District Court: No black or brown belt that is "the wrong shade of black or brown"; no belt containing "too many holes." No studs or braiding on the belt. No pants with "flaps on their back pockets" or "extra" pockets. No clothing bearing the manufacturer's or student's name.

And that's just a partial list. The dress code's alleged restrictions and arbitrary enforcement prompted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arkansas in February to amend the free speech complaint it originally filed against the school system last October.

That earlier complaint centered around 31 disciplinary actions—including 20 suspensions—of junior high and high school students who wore black armbands at school in protest of the dress code. A district court judge almost immediately approved the permanent injunction that the ACLU sought against the armband ban.

On February 22, the ACLU Arkansas branch amended its original complaint to include the dress code itself, as well as the system's ban on student-printed materials, such as a flyer opposing the dress code. Such rules, the ACLU argues, suppress "pure student" speech and violate students' First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

"Once their free speech rights were restored [on the armband issue], we looked at the larger issue of what they were protesting, and we determined that the policies they were protesting were unconstitutional," explains Holly Dickson, an ACLU staff attorney in Arkansas. "The school apparel policy is so strict that if there was a manufacturing label or tag or extra button or belt loop or pocket or brad [metal buttons on jeans], they were disciplined. If it was their first time, there was a write-up; if it wasn't, they were suspended."

Schools attorney Michael Dennis, of Pine Bluffs, says the dress code was formulated with both administrative and parental input. The worst that may have happened, he says, was overzealousness by some school personnel. ACLU’s goal, he says, is no less than a legal prohibition of all dress codes.

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