By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

It wasn’t the largest crowd, but, as expected, it was the most vocal.

Seventeen speakers voiced opinions on the Whiteville City Schools’ proposed uniform policy Tuesday night during a public forum at Whiteville High School.

The third of four forums dealing with the policy proposed last month by the school board, organizers knew that the WHS forum could be a “ground zero.”

Accentuating that point, it was the only forum so far that all five school board members have attended.
The speakers were overwhelmingly against uniforms, mixing into their discussion previous decisions on book bags, metal detectors, purses and the end of block-scheduling.

After going over the rules for presentations (no questions and a three-minute time limit) Principal John Westberg called up the speakers.

Charlene Bush was first.

“I really do not flow either way with uniforms,” she said. “I do think that the board needs to give more thought as to the policy. I think you’ve jumped off on something. In your uniform policy that I read – no skorts, no jumpers and no open-toed shoes. I don’t see a problem with those.”

Bush said that students feel safer being able to see who the gang members are by what they are wearing, adding there is safety in being able to know who the gang members are.

She said the students are not as upset about the uniforms as they are about all of the sudden changes being made in such a short amount of time.

“We haven’t given book bags but two months,” she said.

Bush said there are no stipulations that the clothes have to fit.

No enforcement

“We do not enforce what we have now,” Bush said. “I still see underwear and pants down below their butts. There are shirts not tucked in. It’s the same kids. You have the kids who dress to the dress code. They will still do what you tell them to do. Unless you enforce what you have, I don’t think this is going to work.”

“What you are doing to these children is awful,” said a teary-eyed Jackie Williams. “I work with gang (members) every day at the college. I have a son who hates school now.”

She said that the board needs to give the book bag rule a chance.

“My children will do what you tell them to do, but the others; are you going to see to them?” she asked. “Think about this. That’s all I ask you.”

“I have volunteered in the Whiteville City School for 10 years,” said Peggy Berry. “I know a lot about these children. I spend a lot of time with them. I don’t object to uniforms but I feel badly about taking their book bags. They are adjusting but they are not adjusted.”

She said she had just found out from her grandsons that the six-period day is now a seven-period day just a few weeks after the six-period day was announced for next year.

Too many changes

“We keep making changes,” she said. “I don’t think you have allowed the other two things to be taken care of before you do more things. Students need more time. I am here because I love the children in this school system. I work with them every week. They are frustrated. We need to take the time to slow down and sit and think about it and give the opportunity for children to get adjusted.”

“I was very thrilled when my children were able to come back to this school system,” said Mary Ann Turner. “We are embarking on a socialistic style as an approach to controlling our students’ behavior. We’re labeling the whole school.

“My daughter came home crying the other day and wants to transfer to another system. She had her purse taken because it was two inches over (the size limit.) How does making our children dress alike improve attitudes and make them safer.

Daughter injured

“Let’s talk about true safety. My oldest daughter, sitting in this cafeteria, was struck in the head by a (thrown) apple and suffered a mild concussion. What difference would a uniform have made to ensure her safety?”

“My daughters and her friends are very upset about the uniforms,” said Pam Humphrey. “They want to switch schools. They don’t want to come here any longer. Each child is supposed to have their own identity. They will not have that if they have to wear uniforms.

“I work in probation and the gang members I work with are wearing khaki. I started not to come tonight, but my daughter said, ‘Mama, please go. Maybe one voice will help keep the uniforms from happening.”

“As a new teacher at the high school, I am very concerned,” said Marietta Lee. “I realize that we have a dress code and there is a need for security. I would like to say that I hope our school will decide on more than one color shirt and pants and that our school will purchase and sell the uniforms for the right size and no sagging pants.”

Free uniforms for
pregnant girls?

She asked if maternity attire would be provided for the girls who get pregnant.

“I do support the uniform policy because it will help with security,” she said. “I hope that we will allow for more opportunities in the future to build stronger values in our children.”

“I am against the uniform policy,” said Alena Fowler. She said her 13-year-old, who used to love school, wants to quit now.

“You have a dress code now that’s not being enforced,” Fowler said. “It’s bad when a child is ready to just give up on their whole outcome of life because everything that’s going on in school.”

Chavis McMillan, a teacher and minister, said this was the first school board meeting he had ever attended.

“This issue is very important to me,” he said. “I think what we are doing here is we are trying to change too much, too fast.

Uniform failures

“When you tell me it helps the students and it makes them smarter and it’s for security, well, that dog won’t hunt,” McMillan said. “I looked up some studies. I found studies where uniforms had failed in school systems. I teach at Lumberton (High School) and in Fairmont.”

He said that at Lumberton High School, which has 2,200 students, there are only two resource officers for the entire campus. They don’t use uniforms and they switched to mesh book bags. He said there have been few problems.

“The (Whiteville) Police Department is right down the road and you say we have a problem,” he said. “Put a fence on the backside. A fence is easier than changing the lifestyle. You have kids who want to transfer.

“Maybe we want poor students out of WHS. Who will make the money (on the uniforms)? Trace the money. Whose hidden agenda is this, really?

Lawsuit promised

“There are ongoing lawsuits going on all over the United States (over uniforms). Why are we pushing this? If it passes I will be the first to start that lawsuit. I think it’s wrong for you to tell me how to dress. I figure that you’re taking on more than you are supposed to be doing. We have kids leaving school who can’t stay in college because they haven’t learned anything.”

“I am firmly against uniforms,” said Dean Nealey. “I don’t see uniforms protecting one child. The problem I see is the faculty or administration not enforcing the current policies. I am all for having a standard. I like to see the children dress nice and neat. I was raised in a generation of long hair and afros.

“I remember the students. It didn’t affect me. It made me more resolute to be more individualistic. Don’t make cookie cutters of these children. They need to blossom in their own directions.”
Not a cure-all
“We will follow whatever guide rules that are issued, but I disagree with the uniforms,” said Jodi Council. “I don’t see them as a cure-all for our problems like many have said.”

Council asked who was going to measure to see if the clothing sizes are correct.

“As my son has told me, the dress code that is in place is not being enforced,” she said. “If we’re not enforcing what we have, what is going to change to make us enforce this one? We need to enforce what we have now before we start something new.”

“This whole issue kind of caught my eye,” said Adam Walker, who said he believed uniforms will not reduce any social pressures.

Social pressures

“There are a lot of social pressures that students face,” he said. “I don’t see how uniforms are going to erase those – dating, peer pressure, alcohol, drugs and influences from television to the Internet.”
He said that regardless of uniforms, students will always find a away to show their status – jewelry, the cars they drive or where they live.

“Students will want the same fashionable clothes when they leave school,” he said. They will still have to buy these – uniforms could be added expenses for families.

“The gang activities that you are having to face is not being borne in the schools,” he said. “It’s coming from outside and you have to deal with it. I thank you for all of your work in trying to deal with these issues. When behavior causes police and metal detectors I don’t think uniforms can help.”

“Thank God my child is graduating in two months,” said Anna Johnson, who commented on some visitors’ purses Tuesday being larger than the 8x10 inches allowed by the school for students. She was critical of the school system’s “change on top of change on top of change.”

She said that if a high school student can only read on a fifth grade level, then uniforms are not going to make a difference.

“I applaud you for trying to implement positive changes,” she said. “We aren’t trying a cookie cutter approach to education. Why are we going to try a cookie cutter approach to individual clothing?”
Uniform tax?

She said she didn’t want to go forward with uniforms only to get a bill down the road with a uniform tax on it.

“Who is going to pay for the uniforms when the parents come up and say ‘We can’t afford these uniforms?’ Will they issue one pair? When it’s 85 degrees you’ll need to send home deodorant, shampoo and laundry detergent. And will teachers be required to dress in the same uniform?”

Gayle Kindschuh said she could go either way with the uniform policy, but expressed disappointment with the numerous changes at WHS. She said her fourth child was not getting as much out of the high school experience as did her three older siblings.

“We have a house at Lake Waccamaw and she can go to East Columbus High School and graduate from there in a skinny minute,” Kindschuh said, adding the she and husband, Pete, are both from the north and located here because they liked the area.

“We wish we could say that we were born and raised here because this place is wonderful and tremendous,” she said. “Is this the route the school board needs to go at this time?”

She asked what prevents an intruder from putting on a polo shirt and khakis and walking the campus?
‘Moving too fast’

“I think you are pushing too many changes on our students too quickly,” she said. “You are not giving enough options – warm weather, cold weather, shoes, socks are going to show. Those are just some of the questions

“The book bags and purses were bad enough, now, seven periods instead of six. You need to prioritize. I’m not sure uniforms are it. Start in the lower grades. These (high school) kids are kids getting ready for college and they need to be prepared to do so.”

Terry Mann, who spoke at the original board meeting three weeks ago, said his son is the third generation of Manns to graduate from WHS. Mann said he was speaking again because his situation is different because selling clothes to school aged youngsters is his livelihood.

“Since the board meeting two weeks ago, I found some of the same studies that Rev. McMillan,” he said.

Mann reported that Miami, Florida’s attempt at uniforms had not produced the promised results. He cited San Diego, California’s uniform project, which received glowing reviews when discipline problems decreased and test scores went up. It was later learned from a study by the University of Notre Dame that a $1 million grant had been awarded to the San Diego system at the same time to educate teachers on new ways of working with students.

The Notre Dame study found that the improvements were due to the grant and not the uniforms.

Hasty decision?

“I tried to find high schools in North Carolina that are doing uniforms,” Mann said. “I found that Pitt County is going to uniforms in the fall of 2008. They have three or four tremendous schools and the logistics of their uniform code includes options of colors, shorts and pants.”
Mann said Pitt’s policy was adjusted in June of 2007 giving the school and community 15 months to prepare. Mann said he is worried that the board will make changes to the existing proposal, creating a delay of 30 days, which will make it impossible for most vendors to arrange for uniform shipments in time for school.

“I commend all of the board members for being here,” Mann said.

Stay out of uniform business

Bush spoke again.

“I don’t think the school should be in the business of selling uniforms,” she said, reminding the board that it’s local businesses who advertise with the school and support the various projects.

“It’s not Wal-Mart, Lands End or Target,” she said. “I also do not think you need to pay for any uniforms. Either pay for everybody’s or don’t pay for any.”

WHS teacher Susan Smith spoke next.

“I am very nervous about speaking to the board,” Smith said. “I feel like I’m on the fence. I am a teacher and a mother of three in school. This affects my family tremendously.”

She said that her students have done nothing but talk about uniforms.

“My students are very upset,” she said. “They are not here tonight because they don’t think anybody would listen to what a student would say. As a teacher, I think it would solve some issues. It would remove an intimidation factor.”

Doing her job

Smith said that as a teacher, she had discovered a gun on a student. That student was stopped. She has also discovered alcohol and drugs on students and caught students skipping school.

She said she was able to stop all of these events in their tracks because “she was doing her job.”

“Uniforms didn’t do that for me,” she said adding that there are faculty and staff who do the same thing she does – looking for and stopping trouble.

“We have a new principal who is making a big difference,” she said. “Give Mr. Westberg a chance. The metal detectors are keeping stuff off the campus.”

She said she could find research to support any argument for or against uniforms.

“I have one of the major gang members in my class,” she said. “I have made sure he hasn’t bothered anyone.”

Smith spoke of one of her students who was killed in gang-related activity in November. She said uniforms would not have prevented his involvement with gang activity or his death. She cited a recent overdose by one of her students. Again, she said uniforms would not have changed that outcome.

Punishment?

Martha McPherson spoke of her daughter who wants to know why she is “being punished.”

“How much more do I have to take this year,” she said her daughter asked. McPherson said her daughter has fallen three times trying to manage her load of schoolbooks.

McPherson said her daughter’s worried about taking college prep courses her senior year.

“My daughter asks, ‘Why are they punishing us? I do all that I am supposed to do. Why are they punishing me? I am not a bad kid. It seems like they keep knocking all the good kids down. We’re not doing the bad things but they are punishing us.’”

“You are making a lot of decisions and a lot of changes,” she said. “A lot of our seniors are coming up with problems and this is going to affect their college outcome. My child is going to have to go somewhere else to get what she needs to go to college. She wants to say that she graduated from Whiteville and became a lawyer.”

“I agree with all that has been said,” said Lisa Nance. “Our children as a student body are upset. You are taking away their pride and dignity. Theses kids are proud of where they come from. Don’t take these privileges away from these kids. Fix the problems. It can be done. They all know who the problems are. If you put a uniform on them it’s not going to change how they were raised.”

Nance encouraged prayer over the entire matter.

Laughing stock?

She said that students in the county schools are already making fun of the city students because “the Wolfpack guys will have to wear uniforms next year.”

Nance said there are other ways to fix the security.

She said that of the uniform policy does pass, local businesses need to be supported.
“What will happen to the little bit of downtown we have left?” she asked. “We need to support home. This is our home.”

The only board member to speak during the evening was Chairman Carlton Prince.

“We appreciate every parent who has come here to express his or her opinion,” he said. “I invite you to the board meeting Monday night when we board members will be expressing our ideas. I know this board and we appreciate the comments you have made and the interest and the involvement that you take in your school.”

The final public forum is tonight at 6 p.m. at Central Middle School.

The board will meet Monday, April 14 at 6:30 p.m. to take action on the proposal