Schools adding Dress Code for parents now in WSJ, Barack Obama Elementary Impacted

Know the Houston article was in a thread yesterday, now it's national..From Wall Street Journal..so can't link, paysite

A Houston school is clamping down on inappropriate dress, not by students, but their parents, joining a handful of schools across the country that are banning short dresses, sleepwear and other items parents sometimes wear into school buildings.

“The parents were coming in risqué clothes,” said Carlotta Outley Brown, a principal at James Madison High School in Houston. “They were coming in a manner that was not presentable for the educational setting.”

Schools have asked parents to dress appropriately in the past. But now, the message of what not to wear is being relayed in a more formal manner, outlined in letters and codes of conduct.


A letter from Ms. Brown to parents and guests on the school’s website forbids them from being at the school in such attire as shower caps, hair rollers, pajamas, sagging pants, leggings that show the wearer’s bottom, low-rider shorts and torn jeans showing lots of skin. She warns that those breaking the rules won’t be permitted inside the school until they return appropriately dressed.



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A Houston mom was recently barred from the high school for showing up in a head scarf and a too-short dress, according to news reports. The mom, who couldn’t be reached for comment, was at the school to enroll her daughter before being stopped by an administrator, the reports said.

Zeph Capo, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers union, said the school overstepped in not allowing the parent inside to enroll her child.




“If you have questions about what a parent is wearing, pull them to the side, but enroll the kid,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. We need to be encouraging parent involvement in our schools.”

A spokeswoman in the Houston Independent School District, where the school is located, said she couldn’t comment on the situation or the student’s enrollment status.


At Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond, Va., parents are asked not to wear such items as sleep caps, pajama pants, short shorts and pants not at the waist level. “We all must model ourselves for the children,” states a parent and visitor section of the dress code.

A spokeswoman at Richmond Public Schools, where the Obama school is located, said the district wasn’t aware of a parent dress-code policy at the school and it wasn’t properly approved and isn’t valid.

Tennessee state Rep. Antonio Parkinson has pushed legislation to require school districts to create a code of conduct for parents and other visitors on school grounds, not excluding dress codes. But a bill the Democrat put forward this year was contentious, and this month he asked that it be held to next year.

Mr. Parkinson said he has heard concerns from school leaders about parents showing up in inappropriate wear, including a parent coming to an elementary school in a negligee. “Based on what the principal told me, body parts were exposed,” he said. “Think about what that does to a child for the rest of the day.”

Republican Tennessee state Rep. Ryan Williams had opposed the bill, saying such rules like a dress code could dissuade parents from getting involved at their children’s schools.

An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union said parent dress codes could violate the federal Title IX law, which bars discrimination based on sex in schools and colleges that receive federal funding.

“We are seeing more and more of these dress codes targeted at parents,” said Emma Roth, an attorney with the ACLU. “These parent dress codes are certainly very concerning and perpetuate sexist norms about what is appropriate about what mothers and fathers should wear to school.”