Since 2000, parents zoned for Toano Middle School have been sending their children to class in polo shirts and khaki pants.
But after 18 years, parents are starting to see a need for change — and the school is listening.
“When my kids first started at Toano, as a parent I thought the uniforms would be great. But very quickly, there started to be problems,” said Monique Carne, who has put two of her children through Toano Middle School.
Currently, the school offers an opt-out form for students who do not want to participate in the uniform policy. However, Carne said that this option isn’t advertised, and she didn’t know about it until her son was already halfway through eighth grade.
After learning that students could opt out of the policy, Carne posted about it on a Facebook page for WJCC parents. Other parents were surprised as well, and the post garnered 93 comments as members discussed the pros and cons of the policy.
“I am against the opt-out policy,” said Toano Middle School parent Melissa Speerstra. “What’s the point of a uniform if not everyone wears it? At the end of the day, we are the parents and we decide what kids will and won’t do. If the school has a uniform, my child will wear it. End of discussion. When my child is 18 and goes to college they can make those decisions for themselves then.”
In the past few years, more students have submitted opt-out forms, said Catherine Worley, assistant superintendent for school leadership. While Toano Middle School Principal Tracey Jones said that 75 percent of students still choose to wear the uniforms, the uptick in students opting out has sparked discussions.
“The practice of having uniforms is what is being reviewed,” she said. “We are establishing a committee comprised of school leaders, parents and students to look at the pros and cons of our current practice of requiring school uniforms and gather input as to whether the practice should continue.”
The policy
Carne’s children started their middle school experience at Berkley Middle School, which doesn’t require uniforms, but moved to a home zoned for Toano Middle School after sixth grade. Carne said her children were reluctant to wear the uniforms because they weren’t clothes that the children would typically wear, but some parents like Speerstra like the uniforms for that reason.
“These kids are going through puberty. They don’t need kids wearing skin-tight clothing or super short shorts, for example,” Speerstra said. “I have two daughters that will start at TMS next year, and the last thing I want to deal with is them focusing all their time on what the heck they are going to wear to school. The focus should be on academics and extracurriculars.”
The dress code requires students to wear full-length navy or khaki twill pants with a brown or black belt, according to the school’s website. The pants cannot have logos and are not allowed to sag, be hip-huggers, cutoffs,or any other variety of pant that does not fit the approved qualifications.
Students can wear “walking shorts,” capris, or skirts that must extend past the fingertips and be within the same color categories as the pants.
For shirts, students are required to wear solid-color plain polo shirts with a button placket and sleeves that cover one-half of length of the upper arm.
Help or harm?
Jones, who has been principal at Toano Middle School since 2011, said the unforms have had a positive effect on the school.
“During my time here at TMS, it has really cemented the sense of cohesiveness as a school,” she said. “As you might imagine, having uniforms helps to remove some of the social barriers related to fashion trends and those who may or may not be able to afford pricey items. When you remove those barriers and distractions, students are better able to focus on their learning.”
Carne, however, didn’t notice those positive effects with her children. She said her children were still following the societal conventions that drive middle school life: fitting in.
She remembers her son asking her to buy jogger khaki pants for him because all of the other boys in class were wearing them. Children are always going to try to fit in through clothes, Carne said, whether it’s polos and khakis or jeans and a T-shirt.
Carne said her her children eventually started displaying a lack of pride in their appearance by wearing dirty clothes or not caring about how they looked after a while because the children weren’t able to wear clothing that made them feel good about themselves.
Kyung-Hee Kim, a professor of educational psychology at William & Mary, agreed with Carne, saying that while uniform polices can create a baseline for student attire, such rules also can prevent students from feeling good about themselves in the long term.
“Some of them feel self-conscious and even embarrassed because they are not allowed to select clothes that suit their body types,” Kim said. “This can negatively affect their academic achievement and emotional well-being.”
For Kim, uniforms are not the answer to creating a comfortable learning environment for all.
“Students recognize differences in families’ socioeconomic backgrounds even when wearing the same uniforms,” she said. “Such as who has several uniforms, whose is of lesser quality and whose is worn or dirty. Because wealthier families often buy more uniforms for their child, whereas less wealthy families may have only one uniform for their child. Therefore, uniforms can draw as much as or more attention to families’ socioeconomic differences.”
Despite the increasing popularity of uniform policies nationwide, Kim said, there is no conclusive data to indicate that uniforms improve a student’s experience or education. The schools enacting these policies typically are in lower-income communities, she said, which makes parents like Carne wonder why, in a district with three middle schools, only Toano Middle School requires uniforms.
“I think if you’re going to do it for one school you need to do it for all the schools,” Carne said. “If you’re going to do it for one, it should be for all so that you can see the school board stands behind it. Either all of them have to wear uniforms or none of them.”
