McSwain school district gets strict on dress code

McSwain Union Elementary School District put its fashion foot down this year after it adopted a fairly stringent dress code policy.

Changes to the existing dress code policy forbid students to wear any clothing with graphics or text, unless logos are one inch in size.

The school adopted the policy after students had worn inappropriate clothing to school, said McSwain Union Elementary School District Superintendent Stan Mollart.

"Periodically, we've had kids' shirts that are inappropriate, whether it's a Hooters shirt or a Johnson shirt," Mollart said. "I hope we'll have less distractions in the classrooms because of this."

One of those incidents unraveled into a civil rights lawsuit in 2008 that's still unfolding.

According to earlier Sun-Star reports, a McSwain Elementary School sixth-grader said she was forced to remove her anti-abortion T-shirt by McSwain school administrators in 2008.

The student's mother, Anna Amador, filed a lawsuit against McSwain Elementary School. The suit claimed that the district violated her daughter's free speech rights, right to due process, conducted an unreasonable seizure of her property and committed battery by forcefully grabbing the girl's arm.

The daughter's shirt depicted a developing fetus for "National Pro-Life T-shirt Day."

The image was of a sonogram that showed images of a fetus growing at various stages, with the words "growing....growing...." followed by a blank picture that said "gone," according to earlier Sun-Star reports.

The case file also stated that a cafeteria worker told the girl to take off the shirt, then grabbed the girl's arm and led her to the principal's office, where school officials told her to take off the shirt and never wear it again.

The district denied all the allegations.

A jury trial is set for Aug. 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Fresno with Judge Oliver W. Wanger presiding over the case.

Mollart said he couldn't comment on the details of the case.

The district modeled its dress code policy after Fresno and Clovis school districts, Mollart said, but McSwain's is less stringent.

Clovis Unified doesn't allow students to wear any graphics, text or sports teams labels. It also bans "exotic" jewelry and limits the months students can wear shorts, starting in April and ending in October, according to the district's policy.

McSwain Union Elementary School District doesn't have a gang problem, which is the reason why some schools adopt strict dress codes.

"We are fine with prints and we are fine with stripes," Mollart said. "It may not be as restrictive as people think."

So far, the district has received mixed reactions from parents and students, Mollart said.

In the long run, he said he believes shopping for students will be less expensive because parents won't feel pressured to buy designer clothes for their students.

At some stores you can buy five T-shirts for $20 -- one shirt per day of the week, he added.

Administrators and teachers couldn't be happier, said Veda Jones, assistant to the district superintendent.

"They are already setting the tone," she said. "They already ordered McSwain logo sweatshirts."

Schools won't start penalizing students for violating the dress code policy right away because it is a change, Mollart said, but if they continue to dress inappropriately there will be consequences.

Reporter Jamie Oppenheim can be reached at (209)385-2407 or joppenheim@mercedsun-star.com.