Henrico School Board to consider teacher dress code
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Henrico County teachers may have to watch what they wear to work this fall.
After adopting a countywide dress code for students last month, the School Board now is turning its attention to staff.
Athletic shoes, flip-flops, jeans, tattoos and facial jewelry would be taboo for teachers in most cases under a draft policy to be discussed today at a School Board work session at the Glen Echo Building, 3810 Nine Mile Road.
The board is likely to recommend revisions today based on feedback from an employee survey. The revised policy then will be posted for public comment before the board considers adopting it in August.
Teachers and other staff supported the proposal in a survey from June 24 to July 7. Of more than 6,000 employees contacted, more than 2,000 responded. More than half of the respondents said the draft policy was acceptable.
As drafted, the "Professional Attire Expectations" would require staff to follow the student dress code, which prohibits tight and revealing clothing, among other items.
Other restrictions include a ban on T-shirts or sweatshirts, even on casual Fridays, unless they are school-affiliated.
In other school districts in the Richmond area, the teacher dress code is more general.
Hanover County, for instance, requires attire that reflects the professional position of the employee, is appropriate to the assignment of the employee, and is commonly accepted in the community.
In Richmond, each school is responsible for its own dress code. School officials said they are considering a citywide code.
Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said Henrico could run into First Amendment issues if it allows some messages but not others on clothing.
"The more difficult issue is the question of how far the government can go to invade the personal space of employees," he said.
Two parents who e-mailed the Richmond Times-Dispatch said they supported a dress code for teachers but not necessarily all the restrictions in the draft.
The mother of a fifth-grader at Trevvett Elementary School, who asked that her name not be used, said "One of my child's teachers had on pants so tight one year for parent/teacher conferences, it left NOTHING to the imagination, and that's a bit extreme to me"
"I do admit, some of our teachers are not properly dressed all the time," wrote Kathleen Sumler, parent of a middle school student. "But to cut out blue jeans and tennis shoes at school is ridiculous. They are dealing with children. Why should they have to dress up?"
Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or
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Staff writers Juan Antonio Lizama and Jeremy Slayton contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
citycynic: You are 100% correct about Me Too and The Truth .... This person is a very disturbed individual. Go back and re read the post from dee65, she’s right.
Ric4me: and I thought “cynic” was soooo subtle.
Can’t you just get over whatever problem you have with MeToo’s posts? If you actually bothered to read The Truth and MeToo you would see they take very different positions. You are just acting like a child. I’m starting to understand why you chose cynic for your screen name.
Wow: it just dawned on me - TheTruth and MeToo must have been twins, separated at birth.
I have been public school teacher for a long time and have seen the professional dress code fly out the window. You can’t tell the students from the teachers anymore in many instances. I think school systems have every right to demand a certain level of dress from its employees. After all, they are writing the check. However, I think students should be expected to abide by a dress code as well. I have seen many students shuffle their feet down the hallways with the crotches of their pants between their knees. I have seen students wearing clothes so tight that they are a distraction not just to the opposite sex, but to everyone! These students are allowed to remain at school. I have seen parents show up to conferences barefoot and in curlers. I have seen them in their pajamas and slippers. I think the mentality “it’s my business how I dress” prevails and how dare you offend me by asking me to do something I don’t want to do or requires effort on my part! Maybe there should be some sort of dress-code for entering schools for everyone!
Kandise please, what are you doing? No matter how many aliases you have tried to use, Dr. Mrs. Miss. If you go by Kandise , Nadine, KL, UGOTNERVE, whatever please do not embarrass yourself anymore and write these lies in the RTD under the name of “THE TRUTH” You cannot even come to an online forum to post a blog and people not recognize you. Why are you on here trying to pretend like you are someone else? Did reality finally hit you and you are coming to terms with the fact there is no where left for you to run and lie? No matter where you go people are not going to see right through it? It’s over Kandise. No more lies. Go get yourself some help.
Oh CityCynic, must you take everything so literally? It’s quite ironic how you choose to assume and infer as you wish from my postings, however if I make a comment in response to one of yours that has even the slightest tone of assumption, you’re all over my be-hind. Why the double standard? I guess cynic says it all, you refuse to believe the world is any shade of rose as you only see it through your negative slant.
If you would please use your brain it would be obvious that I have used my deductive reasoning skills to connect “The Truth” and Ms. Lucas as being the same person as the posts that “The Truth” makes on these sites are largely repetitious of what Ms. Lucas has to say at board meetings and to the press.
I’m sorry that you are mentally unable to make this connection and some how feel the need to twist and mangle my words to fit your own argument, but if you would kindly re-read my post, making no assumptions or inferences while doing so, you will indeed see that at no point did I say directly or indirectly that anyone introduced themselves as ‘The Truth’ or ‘L’. In fact, I’m not even sure why you just decided on the L as you will clearly see that my post uses both initials of this person, K and L together. I initially did not include her real name, as the RTD seems to like to delete posts that do not in any way violate their terms of use (and I’m sure this one will fail to make it to the site or will be promptly deleted, despite the fact that I have just reviewed the terms of use and at no point does it say you cannot use anyone’s name or discuss publically available information that his paper has published.)
MeToo- If The Truth is who I think it is then she got fired from JR middle because she alleged abuse by the teachers and adminstrators against the special ed.students. She went on NBC 12 and made these allegations without merit. My daughters went school around same time and most all the students thought she was crazy and didn’t like her. This teacher walked around acting like she was in charge over and above the adminstrators. Yes, she defintely has a bone to pick and from the words The Truth used in their post to express themselves I can gather that they are also behind the website “ugot nerve” the whitening of John Rolfe middle which is a very disturbing website. This all public record.
Teachers should be expected to dress for school in the same (style) attire they present themselves in when they are interviewed for the position, unless the administrator specifically instructs otherwise. No bait & switch for our children please.
I find it sad and disgraceful that an individual claiming to be a professional should even have to be told to dress as one. I think the teachers need to GROW UP!
Did I read this article correctly? Does Henrico Public Schools really have 6,000 employees that would be affected?
MeToo: read the post again…again..slowly. No one introduced themsleves as TheTruth or L.
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