Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991                   TAG: 9102080264
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL UNIFORM BILL HEADED TO SENATE

The bill's sponsor, Del. Kenneth Melvin, D-Portsmouth, said the uniforms are needed in inner city schools where poor children face peer pressure to wear expensive fashions.

"These kids often come to school dressed to the nines but only have a quarter in their pocket," Melvin told the Education and Health Committee before it passed the bill 10-2 with two members abstaining.

Some committee members who represent suburban and rural areas said they had never heard of the problem.

"My daughter dresses like a kid that just got off the boat," said Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Springfield.

Others said they doubted that uniforms would diminish peer pressure. Kids will still compete to wear expensive watches and earrings and fashionable hair styles, they said.

"What's going to happen to the freedom of expression?" said Sen. Frank Nolen, D-Augusta.

"It reminds me a little bit of Russia," he said. "I think this is a terrible bill."

Melvin said schools would have the option of deciding whether to adopt uniforms and students who chose not to wear them would not be punished. The state Board of Education and the attorney general's office would draft guidelines for the uniform policy, he said.

The committee unanimously approved a bill to add $1 to nursing license fees to pay for a nursing scholarship fund. The sponsor, Del. Mary Marshall, D-Arlington, said the scholarship program would help alleviate the nursing shortage.

She said the bill did not violate a pledge by the Democratic House Caucus not to raise taxes.

"We have unbending principles and the first principle is flexibility," she said.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY