It isn’t necessarily ‘either/or’

It isn’t necessarily ‘either/or’

Youngstown school officials have been taking some criticism for enforcing the district’s dress code.

The Youngstown City School District, after all, has a graduation rate of about 70 percent. The district met only one out of 30 primary targets on its state report card last school year. It is on the verge of financial collapse, facing an uphill battle to get a vital levy passed in November.

Given all that, the argument goes, the city school district is wasting precious time and energy in enforcing its dress code.

Today, dressed in our Sunday best, we rise in defense of Superintendent Wendy Webb and other Youngstown school administrators.

Quick, easy, effective

Enforcing the dress code takes little time and few resources, yet sends a strong message that students must hear if the city’s schools are to do the job expected of them — prepare students for life after high school. And in that outside world, most employers require their employees to abide by some kind of standard in dress, either for appearances sake or for safety’s sake, depending on the job.

Those students who are computer whizzes, go off to college and then land high-tech jobs may be lucky enough to be allowed to go to work in jeans and T-shirts for the rest of their lives if they so please. But most workers will not have that latitude.

The school district has a responsibility to teach students that appearance counts and rules must be followed. And in the real world, those who defy the rules don’t get an in-school suspension; they get the boot.