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Lee County School Board members shared their concern about the length of the Code of Conduct, the dress code and making sure parents sign it during a meeting Monday afternoon.
The review of the Student Code of Conduct began last September during meetings with a variety of different stakeholders, which included students and TALC and SPALC. The Code of Conduct will come back before the board on April 20 and April 26 before it will be voted on at an action meeting on May 24.
"This was a very wide net," Secondary Counselor Carol Hauger said, adding that they took all the feedback to heart and looked at the Code of Conduct page by page, line by line.
Teaching and Learning Coordinator Tammy Scott said at each of the sessions they asked four standard questions: Is there anything notable you would like to review regarding the student dress code? Any changes proposed? Is there anything notable in the rest of the Student Code of Conduct to review? And, any proposed changes?
"Every session was met with a quality discussion," she said.
Constituent Services Director Brian Mangan said a hot topic with the Code of Conduct is the dress code. He said they took the opportunity to meet with students individually, as there are local students becoming active on the dress code situation.
"Our code, when it comes to dressing for success, didn’t need a lot of language changes," he said, adding that they "have to do a better job to enforce it."
Mangan said, "Enforcement will focus on positive guidance without embarrassment to the student and should not disrupt the educational process."
He said enforcement will be addressed with training this summer with both deans and assistant principals.
Mangan said although it is up to schools to maintain good proper dress and hygiene, the work has to be done on the enforcement piece. Currently, he said it depends on where the student goes to what is allowed in terms of how the school enforces the dress code.
Concerning the ripped jeans style, he said some principals allow jeans ripped below the knee, while others allow ripped jeans that do not show skin, or no ripped jeans at all.
Board Member Chris Patricca said she would like some flexibility with the dress code as she cannot find jeans that do not have rips in them for her four children.
"As I look at the dress code I am concerned about sexism and racism. One principal might look at student’s hair color as a reflection of racial or ethnic background. What are we doing in terms of training principals and uniformity of implementation and enforcement of schools?" she said.
Patricca asked about girls not being able to wear tank tops to school, while boys are able to wear muscle tank tops.
"I am not clear why that is still in there," she said, also asking about hair color. "It’s 2022 nothing shocks me in regards to the color of someone's hair. People are dying their hair gray on purpose and putting bright colors in there."
Mangan said if the board provides directive of wanting something different about tank tops and hair color in the Code of Conduct they will develop new language and bring it back.
The board took a consensus to remove references to hair color in the Code of Conduct. A consensus was also taken to remove the prohibition against tank tops, which received one for and five against.
"I would agree with the hair color. The tank tops are kind of another issue," Board Member Betsy Vaughn said. "I realize that the tank tops are in and fashionable for teens, but I think we should set an example of what looks appropriate when they come to school. Girls can wear this stuff as long as they have something over it during school time. Tank tops will push the envelope because they are built to push the envelope."
Board Member Gwyn Gittens said the bigger issue is the inequity from administrators. She said to her they need to make some type of ruling that gets individual schools out of deciding whether something is OK, or not.
"Are we going to enforce it at the level of schools," Gittens said.
The board also discussed how to communicate with parents about the Code of Conduct to increase the amount of signed returns. One of the ways that will increase, Scott said, is through quarter report cards now being available on FOCUS, the parent portal.
She said parents will be prompted to update their emergency contacts and sign the Code of Conduct.
"I suspect those not in the portal will get into portal soon. It will help us tremendously," Scott said.
The Parent Bill of Rights was also addressed. The Code of Conduct will include hyperlinks for parents to obtain additional information, which will be helpful as legislation goes through its session and things are updated.
District staff will look into ways to shorten the Code of Conduct for the following school year, as many board members shared that the length of the code is too cumbersome.