In With the School Uniforms
For the past decade schools, parents, and students have clashed over the issue of
regulating school attire. Today school uniforms are most common in private schools, while
public schools allow the students to wear close to whatever they want. However, some public
schools still have uniforms today. In the 1980s, public schools were often compared unfavorably
to Catholic schools. Noting the perceived benefit that uniforms conferred upon Catholic schools,
some public schools decided to adopt a school uniform policy. President Clinton provided
momentum to the school uniform movement when he said in his 1996 State of the Union speech,
“If it means teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools
should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms” (Wilde). School uniforms are
still a huge controversial topic in today’s society. School uniforms should be required in all types
of schools, public and private. They help prevent gangs from forming on campus, they help
students resist peer pressure to buy trendy clothes, and they prevent distractions.
First, school uniforms prevent gangs from forming on campus. Gangs are expanding into
rural, suburban, and urban communities. Street gangs, which account for eighty-eight percent of
United States gang membership, have increased their numbers in fifty-three percent of the
nation’s police jurisdictions, according to the 2013 National Gang Intelligence Center Gang
Report. These gangs usually recruit their members while they are in primary or secondary
school, leading these recruits toward criminal activity and incarceration ("School Uniforms as an
Anti-Gang Tactic”).
One way to reduce gang members’ ability to recruit in schools, and therefore keep
communities safer through addressing the problem, is to create and enforce a school uniform.
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