Horror Stories From Polk County

As they continue down the destructive path towards mandatory school uniforms, our school board seems to be modeling the uniform policy of our neighbors in Polk County. The text of the proposed policy is almost identical to Polk's, and they have mentioned meeting with the Polk County School Board.

It is baffling why our school board wants to use Polk County as a model. Do they think the uniform policy is a success? Nothing could be further from the truth:

1. Immediately after the policy was enacted, parents hired an attorney to sue the school district. The school board's own attorney estimated that the cost of fighting the lawsuit could run as high as $100,000. Take a look at the full text of the newspaper article about Polk. Although finally dismissed on a technicality, the Polk lawsuit dragged on for three years and cost the district untold thousand of dollars. Does Osceola County have that much extra money lying around to fight a lawsuit? Seems to me I remember something recently about significant budget cuts that will further degrade our children's education.

2. Stories abound about students sent home because their jeans were the "wrong shade of blue". One student was sent to the dean's office because his shirt was "forest green", not "hunter green". One middle school reported 30-40 in-school suspensions because of uniform violations. At the same school, all students are asked to stand during their first period class for a "uniform check". Is this really where we want our teachers and administrators spending their time?

You can read the rest of the horror stories on the Polk County School Uniform website.

3. One reason given over and over again for implementing uniforms in Osceola is that they will reduce gang violence and improve discipline. However, in the recent study that Orange County did comparing their non-uniformed schools to similar Polk County schools, they found:

• In-School Suspensions for Polk County were at 9%, almost twice that of Orange County.
• Out-of-School Suspensions for Polk were at 11%, again almost twice Orange.
• Middle School Crime/Violence in Polk increased from 10% - 13% between 2003 and 2006, while Orange County had a significant decrease in Middle School crime.

Clearly, uniforms in Polk County are not reducing violence. In fact, in every case cited in the study, discipline problems were WORSE at the schools with uniforms.

Polk County has had serious financial and discipline issues since implementing the very same uniform policy that is under consideration by Osceola County. Instead of blindly following the path they are on, the Osceola School Board needs to open their eyes, examine the facts, and abandon the pursuit of a mandatory uniform policy. Instead, they need to redirect all of the time being wasted on uniforms into finding creative ways of closing the budget shortfall.

If you agree that the Osceola School Board should abandon the uniform policy, please sign our petition and spread the word.