It’s not what you think.
Schools are not banning the popular hooded sweatshirts because they are sloppy-looking or they promote gang violence. Rather, school administrators in Kansas have put the kibosh on hoodies with large pockets because an inordinate amount of students have been using the sweatshirt’s “kangaroo pocket” to text others during class.
According to reports, cell phone and other PDA abuse by students has forced administrators to revamp the school dress code.
Students attending Kansas’ Andale Elementary and St. Mark’s Charter School can still wear sweatshirts, but the fleece tops cannot feature hoods or front pockets.
The change in the schools’ dress code policy comes after dozens of students started wearing hoodies in order to sneak their cellphones into class.
Kansas schools banned cellphones and PDAs from classrooms years ago, but innovative students tried to sidestep the rule via hoodies.
A seventh grader told local news reporters that it was easy to text during class thanks to hoodies:
“We have our cellphones in our pockets and they’d vibrated. So then we’d take it out and bring it to the side and type, and we could memorize our keyboards, because most of us have full keyboards.”
Middle school teachers requested the hoodie ban after the text-messaging problem got out of hand.
Many students are balking about the new hoodie ban—-no surprise there. However, what shocked me was the number of parents who expressed their ire about the new dress code policy.
Parents say they can’t believe schools are outlawing an article of clothing. Moms and dads of elementary school students are especially perturbed given that the majority of younger children don’t even own PDAs.
While some Kansas schools have instituted an outright ban on hoodies, others are taking a more creative approach. For example, at Colwich Elementary, students are allowed to wear hoodies provided the offending pockets are sewn shut, so students can’t conceal phones in them.
Interestingly, school administrators that banned hoodies say the texting problem wasn’t the only factor in their decision. Some teachers complained that hoodies were a health problem. In several cases students would go days without washing their hoodies and school administrators didn’t want germs to spread during the flu season.
What do you make of the hoodie ban?
Related Articles:
You Know Your Kid is Obsessed with Texting When…
Why Schools Are Banning Hoodies
A New Twist on School Dress Codes