Changes in school dress code unfair, parents say

ABC 7 has been contacted by several parents with children in the Socorro school district about what they’re calling a sudden policy change. One father is upset the principal decided to change the uniform policy after the school year had started.

In an email, he writes, “I cannot afford to buy school uniforms every time a new principle decides to change the rules. Today, my son was sent to an alternative class as punishment for not following the uniform policy. It made me angry that they are punishing him for being poor, not for misbehaving. Something so petty, interfering with his education.”

Other parents and children from Sun Ridge Middle School also say the change in uniform policies came on suddenly.

Amparo Enchinton says there was nothing in the school’s policy about cargo pockets. She says that she had talked with the principal about the changes coming later in december, when it was announced Wednesday that the new policy would be enforced.

“I didn’t have the opportunity to go buy him shorts, and I sent him with a note to school,” Enchinton said. “And this morning he called, crying, from the school office, telling me that I needed to go take him uniforms, for me to go buy him some immediately, because he was going to get in trouble. He was going to go to S.A.C.”

S.A.C., or special assignment class, is SISD’s name for in school suspension, where students violating policies may be sent.

11 year old Abraham says he tried to give the front office a note from his mother excusing his pants for the day, and that he’d have the correct ones for tomorrow. But he says that staff yelled at him and sent him to S.A.C. without looking at it.

“It’s saddening, because I’m a good student,” Abraham said. “I do the best I can, and they’re yelling at me like I’m some kind of criminal.”

Lucia Borrego, the assistant superintendent for secondary schools, says that specific policies for dress codes are set at the campus level. But it is not standard to change them during the year, and office staff should not have been as harsh as they may have been in this instance.

“Absolutely not,” Borrego said. “We should never yell at anybody. Wether it’s a child, an adult or another person, yelling doesn’t get us anywhere. I would hope to say that wasn’t the case, but I don’t know because I wasn’t there. I will continue the investigation. That is not okay. You should never yell at anybody. “

Borrego also said that if any parent has issues like this, they can contact the district at 915-937-0000.
And you can see a full listing of the school’s dress code policy here.