Northeast High uniform policy protested

A small group of parents and students protested outside Northeast High School yesterday on the first day of a new uniform policy.

Of the school's 2,400 students, only 60 attended out of uniform, district spokesman Fernando Gallard said.

Under a policy adopted in October 2008 and sent to parents Aug. 18, students must wear tan khaki pants and a white oxford shirt.

Three mothers held signs in front of the school with five students. Students said those not in uniform had been told to go to the auditorium. One said the auditorium doors were held shut with bungee cords.

Gallard said the bungee-cord assertion was "absolutely not true." He said students not in uniform had been sent to the auditorium, where principal Linda Carroll explained that they had to wear uniforms the next day. Students in partial uniform were sent to class. Those entirely out of uniform remained in the auditorium and received instruction from teachers.

Stephanie Cruel, whose daughter is a junior at Northeast, has been campaigning against the policy.

"People don't have the extra money" to buy uniforms, she said.

Cruel criticized what she called a requirement that the uniform be bought from Flynn & O'Hara. But according to the school's Web site, the shirts and pants can be bought anywhere. The optional sweater with the school logo must be purchased through Flynn & O'Hara.

Cruel also objected to the tan pants and got the district to agree that girls with a doctor's note could wear black pants.

With a doctor's note, her daughter went to school in black pants, a white collared shirt, and an unapproved black sweater. Her daughter was not allowed into school, Cruel said.

Gallard said no students had been told they could not attend school because they were not in uniform.

Cruel said parents had not been notified about the uniforms until Aug. 18. By then, she said, many had bought school clothes.

But Gallard said the Home and School Association approved the policy in October 2008. "It was a long and open process where parents and students were involved," he said.

If students continue to attend out of uniform, administrators will pull them aside and call their parents, Gallard said. Those actions could lead to a suspension, he said.