Texas School's Proposal To Ban Black Clothing Goes Over Poorly

Hey, teacher, leave the goths alone.

Earlier this week, a middle school in Texas sent out letters informing parents that, per the new school dress code, students would no longer be allowed to wear all black to school. Why?

Because, they claim, wearing all black is “associated with depression and mental health issues and/or criminality.”

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The letter read:

We have put a great deal of time and effort into adjusting our dress code policies based on feedback from families, faculty, staff, and community stakeholders. Our goal with dress code, as well as everything else we do, is to provide a safe environment that inspires and empowers all Chargers to thrive. As such, we are removing opportunities for students to hide, use, and distribute items that they should not have in school by eliminating sweatshirts with hoods and pockets. We are also eliminating a look that has taken over on campus with students wearing black tops with black bottoms, which has become more associated with depression and mental health issues and/or criminality than with happy and healthy kids ready to learn.

What criminality, exactly, is associated with middle schoolers who wear all black? Does the school district think these children are middle schoolers by day and cat burglars by night? Cat burglars who are too lazy to change into their cat burgling outfits? Do they perhaps think the children are in the mob? What are they talking about, here?

Truly, this is ridiculous. Parents thought so, too, and have pushed back something fierce.

Via KFOX 14:

Alex Lucero commented on a poll about this dress code stating, “The color of clothing has nothing to do with your ability to do anything or feel any emotion."

Another comment by Peter Benecke Jr. says, “Wearing black is not a mental health issue, it’s the way of life.”

Alexis Contreras commented, “...making students wear a different color isn’t going to magically make them a completely different person.”

Honestly, it’s amazing to see parents standing up for their kids like that.

Thanks to all the bad publicity the new rule has been getting, the school now claims that the rule was not a rule yet and was shared “prematurely” with parents. One thinks they’ll probably walk that one back.

You know … there was this guidance counselor at my school who was just ever so desperate to prove that I had a drug problem, because of the rather eclectic way I dressed as a teenager. In reality, despite my school’s fairly serious heroin problem, I pretty much just smoked cigarettes and didn’t even really like pot very much. But she wanted it to be true so badly that, after I became really faint in bio one day and had to go to the nurse, she almost immediately called my mother and literally said, “We got her. Your daughter is on something and we’re going to find out what.” She could hardly contain her glee as she interrogated me, after the nurse determined that I had really low blood pressure — because that obviously proved I was on drugs, right?

Nope! As it turned out, I just had a really bad salt deficiency.

The thing is, she probably ignored the actual problems (drug and otherwise) the “normal-looking” kids had because she was so convinced that “the weird chick” must be hiding something big. I know a lot of people who have similar stories from when they grew up. It got really bad for a lot of kids after Columbine, when people suddenly decided that all the goth kids and bullying victims were going to blow up the school (in reality, Harris and Klebold weren’t bullied and they weren’t in the “Trenchcoat Mafia”).

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Wearing all black is just a preference. If teachers are so very concerned that children are telegraphing their depression or “criminality” through their clothing choices, then maybe get them some help — but only if they actually seem to be having some non-sartorial issues. Otherwise, you’re just discriminating against goths and the very, very chic.