The Caldwell School Board voted Monday to extend its new district dress code to the high school.
The code, which already applies to the district’s elementary and middle schools, will require students to wear collared, solid-colored shirts and dark-colored bottoms. Prohibited items include dresses, clothing with large logos, and jeans with holes or decorative stitching, as well as red or navy blue shirts, which are associated with gangs.
Interim Superintendent Jonathan Cline and Caldwell High School Principal Mike Farris spoke in favor of the new dress code. Cline said it has helped cut discipline problems at the lower grades and should have similar benefits in the high school. Farris suggested the new code is more direct and will be easier for teachers to enforce than the one currently on the books.
Board Chairman Chuck Stout, who cast the board’s lone dissenting vote, said he’d received complaints from parents who believe buying and maintaining new clothes will be too expensive. Stout argued that the board should convene a workshop with parents to discuss the code. (Idaho Press-Tribune)
