Student fights for change in dress code
He still isn't happy with it, but Evans High School junior Matthew Nance won a partial victory after petitioning the Columbia County school board to change the student dress code.
Matthew, whose family moved to Columbia County this year from Heidelberg, Germany, hasn't liked the dress code since school began. But instead of stewing about it, he set out to do something.
"Some shirts aren't meant to be tucked in," he told the board at its Sept. 9 meeting where he presented them with a petition signed by 1,020 students.
The school board voted 3-2 to delete a sentence in the system's dress code that requires all T-shirts to be tucked in.
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The vote split the board into two camps. Regina Buccafusco and Lee Muns wanted to delete the entire tuck-in rule, which states, "Shirts and blouses that are designed to be worn tucked in, including all T-shirts, must be tucked into the waistband of the pants or skirt."
Matthew, too, had lobbied to have this sentence deleted from the code.
"I think we need to strike this sentence so kids and principals don't have to worry about what is tucked in and they can go on about their business," Muns said.
Roxanne Whitaker, Mildred Blackburn and Wayne Bridges, however, did not want to open the door to allow just any untucked shirttails.
"If my son were on the job and an employer told him he was required to have his shirt tucked in, he would probably get fired the third time he didn't have his shirt tucked in," Whitaker said.
In the end, the three prevailing school trustees voted to strike the T-shirt clause but not the entire rule.