Silence Broken: Making Inmates of Students

By Kameelah Rasheed, August 15, 2008

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Opinion: A Texas school district says to follow the dress code or wear a prison jumpsuit.

The meticulously-worded list of punishable offenses is published in Spanish and English on the Gonzalez Independent School District website. The new dress code casts a wide net by forbidding anything that "disrupts the educational process as determined by a school administrator."

The code mandates that boys' hair shouldn't extend below the bottom of their dress shirt collars, past the bottom of the ear or over their eyes. Boys are similarly restricted from wearing earrings. Girls can still wear earrings, but miniskirts, leggings, tight shorts, tights, cut-offs, and wind shorts above the knee are completely prohibited. According to the code, "Decency when sitting shall be a prime factor in determining appropriateness for the school setting."

Another section that helps students and parents understand what Larry Wehde calls the school's "conservative community" includes these stipulations: "All shirts [must] have a collar and sleeves" and "belts will be worn in grades 5-12 for all male students."

What better way to drive home the city's desired conservativeness than to punish and humiliate dress code violators by requiring them to wear Texas prison inmate made jumpsuits?

Protests got so heated at a recent school board meeting that police were called. Many parents were not upset with the new policies per say, but rather the consequence for violating such policies. Students choosing to buck the system and dress as they please would be offered the blue Texas prison jumpsuit in lieu of in-school suspension. However, if a parent is able to bring an "appropriate" set of clothing, students don't have to wear the inmate-made garb.

Deputy Superintendent Wehde has responded to student backlash and outcries from angry parents by calling the prison jumpsuits "work coveralls." Euphemisms aside, the implication that schools condition students as wards of the state rather than as learners is troubling. ABC News contributor Elizabeth White writes that schools frequently incorporate other prison system motifs in seemingly innocuous manners, but that the Gonzalez Independent School District's proposal is the most explicit case:

The 2,650-student district has ordered 82 coveralls, which are most often sold to county jails, state mental institutions and juvenile prisons. School districts have bought lunch trays and similar items from inmate labor, but no other school district has ordered the jumpsuits in the last year, said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

As a commenter on Above Top Secret noted, "Perhaps they should invest in some sporty leg-irons and hand-cuffs while they're at it! Sounds like obedience and societal conditioning rituals, which, sadly enough, always begins in our classrooms."

Schools also mimic prison architecture. A May 2008 New York Times article points out that school design, particularly public school designs are often "lumped in with the design of other institutional structures like jails, civic centers and hospitals, to detrimental effect."

Now throw in a few jumpsuits, prison food service trays, teachers who think they are drill sergeants, an educational pedagogy based on rote learning, metal detectors, a few security guards and what have we got?

We may assume that the Gonzalez school district's actions are an isolated and desperate attempt to establish a code of conduct. However, we must be conscious of the ways in which elements of the prison system are slowly creeping into classrooms and shaping administrative directions in schools. As I reflect on my first year teaching, I am committed to ensuring that prisoner management does not become a routine for addressing behavioral concerns. More importantly, I am committed to working towards building school contexts that shape students as learners rather than potential prisoners.

Want to stay update on what's happening in our schools? Check these links:

Detention Slip: Your Daily Cheat Cheat for Education News!

The Chalkboard: News that Impacts the K-12 Scene

Get Schooled: An Education Blog

Edespresso: Your daily addiction for breaking news, commentary, and debate on real education reform

Education Policy Blog: A multiblog about the ways that educational foundations can inform educational policy and practice!

Kameelah Rasheed was raised on a harmonious, yet eclectic mix of Islam and old Gil Scott-Heron records. Currently, she teaches 12th grade Humanities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read more of Kameelah's writing on her blog, KameelahWrites, see photography at her Flickr page.