Over the past couple of years, school uniform policies have been enforced as the most efficient method for solving problems such as crime and attendance ratings in our public schools. Many schools state that it is quite true that uniforms are lowering such mentioned rates of crime tremendously, but can this really be proven? Currently, there have only been informal studies that try to actually see if uniforms are helping, no long term studies. Technically speaking then, mandating uniforms in our school systems is not the key to fixing problems with the youth.For example, Californias Long Beach school district says that ever since the year of 1994, when uniforms in their schools were put into place, the crime there has dropped by seventy-six percent and attendance ratings have never been higher. This of course sounds lovely and all but the fact is that it just has not been proven that the uniforms themselves have helped make these problems better. Even if it had been proven that the uniforms are helping over anything else, they still have been creating other problems. Clothes are a source of expression for children, and as kids gets older, they become increasingly resentful of uniforms, said Dr. Alan Hilfer who later added that uniform policies take way our childrens individualities. Other education experts see the uniforms as a violation to the rights of the students to their freedom of expression and that they are only cover-ups to the real problems with the youth that are at hand.In a recent online poll asking the viewers of the site about clothes at school and who exactly should be making the rules. Of the 5,017 people that voted, the top result was thirty-one percent going to the parents' daily decision, leaving uniforms tied in third place with only twenty percent. In May of the year 2000, 755 principals from around the nation that did not have uniform policies in effect at their schools and were members of the National A...
