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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120214
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL BYRD LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL UNIFORM BILL IRONED OUT, HEADED TO GOVERNOR

A 20-16 vote sent the bill, sponsored by Del. Kenneth Melvin, D-Portsmouth, to Gov. Douglas Wilder for his signature. The House had approved the measure earlier this month.

Melvin argued the bill would help prevent violence in inner-city schools, where students who wear expensive sneakers, jackets, or other items of clothing sometimes are assaulted and robbed by envious classmates.

To buttress the point, Portsmouth officials have cited the case of an 11-year-old who recently was assaulted and robbed at a shopping mall by four men who threw him to the floor and stole his Reebok sneakers.

A coalition of conservatives and liberals, however, attacked the bill fiercely in Monday's debate. "Some people are rich. Some are poor. Some are in between. I don't believe public schools will ever change that," said Sen. Dudley Emick, D-Fincastle. "We cannot continue to mandate that public education be a solution to the nation's ills."

Other critics suggested the bill infringed on the right of self-expression. "One of the great strengths of this country is diversity. I'm not so sure it's bad that people come to school dressed in different manners," said Sen. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, a school administrator. "It's an expression of individuality which, to me, is consistent with a free society."

Melvin's bill would not require uniforms and specifies that there can be no penalties for students who refuse to participate. Critics contend this makes the bill meaningless, but supporters argue that most parents would welcome regulations and that up to 95 percent of the students would wear uniforms, even under a voluntary system.

Sen. Robert Calhoun, R-Alexandria, said the bill might have the unintended effect of forcing students to "dress up" when they would prefer to come to class in worn blue jeans and battered sneakers. "The bill sends a message that we want to regiment everybody," he complained.

Backers responded that legislators from rural and suburban areas would have a hard time understanding the peer pressure and resentment that would lead a child to assault and rob a better-dressed classmate.

"This is a deadly serious problem, but we're taking this bill as some sort of a joke," said Sen. Richard Saslaw, D-Springfield. Students in prosperous districts "don't kill for a pair of Air Jordans," he said. "They don't kill for a leather jacket. They don't have the kind of pressure that's on kids who come from homes that don't know where their next meal is coming from."

Sen. Johnny Joannou, D-Portsmouth, said similar laws allowing school uniforms have been adopted in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore. "It takes the peer pressure off of kids to wear expensive blue jeans and Nikes," Joannou said.

At a House committee hearing in January, supporters of the bill said uniforms have been so successful in Baltimore that all but a handful of the city's 122 elementary schools have adopted them. The complete Baltimore uniform costs $30 to $35 - less than a designer shirt - and includes simple clothing such as dark skirts for girls and white shirts and clip-on neckties for boys.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY