[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=45178.34

New year, new MQT school uniforms

Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - When the next school year starts in August, students at Marquette Catholic High School will be wearing uniforms.

Four freshmen who modeled various components of the new uniform said they anticipate easier, less stressful mornings with the uniforms.

"I think it will be easier, especially for the girls," said Randall Martin, who modeled the navy blue long-sleeved sweater. Like all parts of the uniform, the sweater bears Marquette's blue and gold crest.

A blue and gold striped tie is part of the uniform-of-the-day on Thursdays when students attend Mass, but no tie is required on most other days.

Randall wore a white dress shirt with his sweater and khaki pants. Spencer Sacks wore a polo-style shirt and a dark blue sweater vest.

Both girls, Elizabeth Kolodiej and Grace Janowiak, wore the blue and gray plaid uniform skirts. Girls may choose from white or light blue long-sleeved dress shirts or dark blue or white polo-style shirts. They too have sweater options.

Pants are not a part of the girl's uniform, and that's OK with both girls.

Jeans are not part of the uniform for either gender.

"I think the uniform lets us be identified with Marquette," Grace said. Elizabeth nodded.

Marquette Principal Jim White said the idea of having a uniform came to him from the students.

Early in the school year, he said, "a group of girls approached me to ask if I would consider uniforms."

As background, he explained that Thursdays, when students attend Mass, are dress-up days. "And it got to be very competitive," he said. "Some parents were going out to buy new things to wear on Thursdays," the principal added.

When he was principal at Gavit Middle and High School in Hammond, he instituted a uniform policy.

"Before uniforms, I dealt with 80 discipline problems a day. With uniforms the number dropped to 20," he said.

Uniforms did not miraculously turn rowdy students into angelic students. Rather, White no longer had to deal with disciplinary matters related to the dress code.

As an educator, he knows it is the job of teens to push the boundaries, but believes uniforms leave little room to push.

At one point, he said, he worried about the Hammond students missing class while they sat in the office and waited for him to take care of dress code infractions.

Marquette students don't have nearly as many dress code issues, "But I had begun to see a dress down I didn't like," White said.

Students will still be permitted to wear athletic shoes, he said. "We've got to remember we have the two buildings and kids are always walking between here and the Scholl Center." Safety in slippery weather is one of his concerns.

So far, he said, "I have had no challenges from students."

The girls voted on the skirt style, and he said more than 90 percent of them voted for the one the girls modeled, an easy-fitting A-line with inverted pleats, which allow plenty of room for vigorous walking.

None of the seven Boys and Girls State delegates - all juniors - objected to the uniforms when asked last week.

Grace and Elizabeth said it will save them enormous time in the mornings, when they don't have to think about putting together an outfit.

Nobody at Marquette is flashing gang colors, White said, but like modern principals everywhere, he said he knows a certain group of students are always trying to outdo each other and some even use fashion as a bully weapon.

In his mind, White said, it's all about keeping students safe and focused in school.

He can think of several harmful effects from failing to institute a uniform policy, but he can't think of any way in which uniforms would harm anyone.

"That's what it's about," he said. "It's all about kids."

[IndyTransplant]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=45178.34

In my youth I attended a school where uniforms were required. Individuality still came through, but they are right that it cuts way down on the competition in fashion (especially among the girls). This policy is more lenient then mine was. Our shoes could not be running, track or sneaker types (except in phys ed classes - where we also had uniform phys ed clothes).