|
|
When Fighting Education Depriving Uniform Policies was founded by concerned parents, we
believed that school officials had gone too far in enforcing an unreasonable uniform policy. We
now realize that administrators are in blatant violation of the US Constitution in tactics being
used to uphold the policy. Not only are they depriving our children of an adequate education
based on minor infractions involving dress code, they are denying students their
constitutional right to protest using constitutionally protected symbolic speech.
Many support uniform policies when reasonably administered. Conversely, many feel that
empirical evidence does not support the need for uniforms in public school and oppose such
policies. Our members all agree, however, that the policy in effect at Watson Chapel is NOT
reasonably administered and is only disadvantaging both students and parents. We also agree
that administrators have consistently failed to consider feedback from their residents and
adjust unfair policies to meet the demands of these constituents. In fact, Superintendent
Danny Knight was quoted in the AR Democrat Gazette as stating that the district has no
intention of loosening its tightened dress code. This same administrator was portrayed in our
State’s primary news publication as “scoffing” at legitimate legal action by the ACLU for a
very serious violation of the supreme law of our land. The goal of administrators should not be
perpetuating a hostile learning environment for our students for the sake of maintaining order.
FED UP believes that our schools are funded by residents of the district and that
administrators should be accountable to the residents of the district. We also believe that our
students deserve an adequate education regardless of the number of buttons on their shirts,
the color of threading in their pants, or the placement of their pockets. For these reasons, we
must take a stand together and make RESOLUTION a priority.
|
|
