Oct. 13: A teacher reports that:
1) Our attendance rate is down so far this year... we're one of only 6 out of 21 high schools whose attendance has declined this year.
2) Our suspension rate has more than doubled so far this year.
Teacher members of the SBDM Council:
Susy Ward
Ed Farrar
Bob Peters
Cassandra Minor
Stephanie Wright
As of 10/13, the faculty cannot agree on their sixth and final choice. Administration members of the SBDM Council are expected to be Principal Fred Harbison and Assistant Principal Dickerson.
Sept. 28: ACCE met to prepare for the upcoming SBDM Council parent elections. According to reports, the teachers have so far voted in five pro-uniform candidates, including several who were on last year's SBDM Council. They have not yet been able to agree on a sixth candidate. We also got an update on the progress of the parent lawsuit, which was moved to Federal Court (it was filed in state Court) at the request of the defendants, the Jefferson County Public Schools, who have retained Louisville's most expensive law firm to represent them. We discussed the filing of more grievances based on teacher harassment of students. Another student has withdrawn from Atherton due to the negative climate for education at the school.
Sept. 21: A parent filed a lawsuit against the school and the County opposing the uniform dress code. Read it here.
Sept. 15: The final meeting of the outgoing SBDM Council was held. About twenty people addressed the Council, primarily against the uniform code, including parents who are child psychologists and clergy members. The Council as usual made no acknowledgment or response. School Board Member Beverly Moore also addressed them on the issue of the need to change the Board's Bylaws, which in their present version are not in agreement with the County's (and Commonwealth's) emphasis on including parents on Task Forces. Only half of the SBDM Council members were present at the meeting. A parent announced her intention to file a lawsuit about the uniform policy and its enforcement.
Sept. 6: About 30 ACCE members and friends spent Labor Day Sunday having a "Creative Compliance Iron-On Pizza Party"... we'd found some iron-on letters and decals and went to work livening up those dreary white polos with some new political messages. Energetic students made some new buttons and stickers as well. Creativity flowed... click on the "Buttons and Slogans" button to see what we came up with.
In unrelated news, Atherton decided to break with tradition and NOT allow seniors the usual chance to dress up for yearbook photos this year - no suits and ties, no dresses, just white and khaki and black. Except, of course, for the political buttons, iron-on messages, armbands, and other forms of creative compliance....
At our meeting on Sept. 1: We are focusing now on the SBDM (Site-Based Decision Making) Council Elections in early October. Students are focusing on surviving the daily surveillance of every detail of dress. We are also gathering information for the School Board and the State to pursue policy changes on a higher level than the school. Legal appeals are moving through the system. Wheels are in motion...
In the meantime, the school is perplexed - too many parents have signed up to participate in School Task Forces and Committees! There's supposed to be a ratio of 6 teachers to 4 parents, but teachers can't be forced to be on committees - so what's a school to do with all these committed, energized parents? The problem is Atherton's antiquainted bylaws, which limit the ratio to "no more than" 6:4; while the County as a whole says that unlimited numbers of parents can participate, "at least" 4 for every 6 teachers. State law supports the County.
Also, Atherton seems to have forgotten that at its appeal to the SBDM Appeals Board, they argued that the ratios for Task Forces are only advisory, not binding, since Task Forces can't make policy, only propose it to SBDM for an actual vote. They said that the composition of any group making a proposal to the SBDM doesn't matter, only the SBDM ratio matters. They argued this to get around having voted in policies developed without parent participation. So if you follow their logic, there's nothing wrong with unlimited parent participation. Stay tuned....
A parent reports: [on Aug. 25]"... the Atherton Community for Cooperation in Education (ACCE) met at 7pm. There were approximately 70 people in attendance. The Executive director of the ACLU spoke and informed us of our constitutional rights. We know we will be protected for political and prosocial messages and American flags on our polos, no matter how they are on there. That means ironed on, glued on, written on, pinned on, etc. is a freedom you have. You also have the freedom and right to wear any color armband. Our American flag had red white and blue before the gangs did. Pins/ political buttons with messages are also protected by first amendment rights. Religious articles and jewelry is also a protected area. And as we have seen from the case in Mississippi, you many wear it freely outside your shirt. The article said, "but we realized that it infringed on freedom of religious expression, and that freedom supersedes the safety issue".
Any and all complaints that fall under first amendment right, freedom of expression and freedom of religion need to be sent to the ACLU or emailed to them at: ACLUKy@iglou.com
You must immediately file through the school all complaints (including those of harrassment, insulting comments, mistreatment). "
We also heard through the grapevine that a group of teachers who were frustrated by creative compliance met with the JCSB attorney, who agreed with what the ACLU has been telling us - he said we were very "savvy" about this, and we are legally right.
A number of grievance letters have been filed with various people at the school, county, and state level regarding teacher harassment of students, and about inequalities in the code and in enforcement of the code.
- One math teacher reviewed the code at length with her class (another 1/2 hour of teaching time down the drain), and informed them that students wearing "signage" would not get good college recommendations from her. This constitutes discrimination under the Jefferson County students' Bill of Rights, which prohibits discrimination based upon political beliefs. A complaint has been filed by members of the class.
- In another incident, a student wearing a button that said "I miss my real clothes" was told by an Assistant Principal that she might be happier going to an alternative school. This is a student whose test scores would seem to ensure that Atherton would do anything to keep her....
Quick report on Day Three (August 19):
Penalities for even trivial noncompliance are immediate. One area of frustration for everyone has been the definition of "oxford" shirts, since many people thought that any white dress shirt was allowed and shopped accordingly. The code insists on buttons on the collar, so this has been (inconsistently) enforced. Sales of little white buttons in greater Louisville area stores have skyrocketed, as parents discover dormant sewing skills. (hot tip: buy stock in companies that manufacture clear plastic backpacks - see more below)
While the administration continues to report that everything is just fine, teachers and students report some depression, demoralization, and fear. According to a teacher, the freshmen, particularly, did not enjoy their introduction to High School, and are very quiet. Teachers are spending time in each class counting for buttons on shirts. They are also looking through dictionaries for the definition of "oxford" shirt.
SBDM Meeting Aug. 19
About twelve parents and students, some of them new to school or to the SBDM process, testified to the inequalities of inconsistent enforcement, and depression and fear in the school (many more parents and students were present). No one was pro-uniform. Most speakers asked the SBDM to rescind the policy.
One school counselor spoke, saying how much she liked wearing her new uniform because "Now I don't have to think..." She did mention problems for lower income families having trouble finding uniform (i.e., preppy) clothing in their neighborhoods. But she urged the Council not to change the code, because those same people had invested in the uniform now and it would be a financial hardship on them to change it (later another speaker pointed out that they could still wear those clothes in whatever combination they wanted with other garments.)
One teacher spoke very emotionally about Tuesday as among the worst days of his life, having to do things that contradicted everything he believes in as an educator, forced to humiliate his students (mainly freshmen). He received a standing ovation.
As always, the SBDM Council made no response of any sort to anything that was said to them.
However they did feel the pain of one SBDM parent member, whose daughter was actually disciplined for noncompliance. How was she supposed to know that collars had to have buttons? She only voted for the code, after all! The SBDM was so distressed that they scheduled an emergency meeting for next Monday to deal with the collar button problem. (reality check: can someone explain how this relates to making the school a safer place?)
But this SBDM member had more to offer! She picked up on a student's reference to backpacks as a greater security hazard than collar buttons, to suggest that it was time to refer the issue of banning backpacks to the infamous Climate and Safety Task Force for action. Since it seems unlikely that they'd change the school schedule to allow students to visit their lockers more often, transparent backpacks seem like the next thing mandated for Atherton (see hot stock tip above).
And more! Another Council member was disturbed by the jewelry problem. Students are wearing it, even some items that they claim are religious symbols. This will be dealt with.
They also pondered banning any discussion of dress codes in the SBDM for THREE YEARS. As far as we could tell they didn't actually take action on this.
Quick report on Day One (August 17):
Interesting morning. The administration came up with something different. They sent most of the non-complying kids (200-250) directly to the auditorium, which they stressed was not ISAP (in-school detention), it was a kind of alternative homeroom. They were inconsistent in their enforcement - some kids went dressed in a uniform EXCEPT for a message printed on the shirt, like "No uniforms" or "I support democracy" - some of these kids made it through the blockade, and some did not.
Most of the kids not in compliance were not doing it deliberately, they had just misinterpreted the code, or thought there was some leniency on detail - there wasn't. I saw a girl sent to the office because her white shirt had no buttons on the collar - not a buttondown. Her mom was not happy to have to come in with a replacement. Some students tried to be noncompliant, but when it was clear that they would be kept out of class they agreed to change clothes. (It is rumored that the administration spent several thousand dollars obtaining a stock of suitable uniforms)
We think there were about 50 to 70 deliberate non-compliers who remained in the auditorium - but some others did make it to class with plans for later.
Security officers, school "enforcers", and police, were all out in force, but with little to do but stand around looking intimidating. Lots of tense-verging-on-hostile encounters between parents and school officials, as parents tried to determine how their kids were being processed. Lavish media coverage.
Parents and former Atherton students (last year's seniors) were there in support in a safe zone in a private yard across the street from the school building.
Some parents were called, and signed their kids entirely out of school. Others left their kids in the auditorium, where they were allowed to enroll and fill out all the forms. Meanwhile, they were undergoing brainwashing, in the form of a packet about attitudes. Doors were locked, parents were not allowed in, and they were even escorted to and from the bathrooms.
The truth about the free pizza rumor: noncompliant students locked in the auditorium were not allowed to go to the cafeteria for lunch, so ham-and-cheese sandwiches were provided. But some of the students were vegetarian or kosher, so pizza WAS ordered for them, and paid for by the administration.
Some kids were preparing to go underground back to class. Teachers reported that the administration was so overwhelmed by the number of noncompliant students to process that by afternoon they were sending kids BACK to class with notes like "this student is compliant" - when the student was wearing blue jeans. In this way the administration was able to report to the press that there were few students out of compliance, no big deal, everybody just loves uniforms! And the press bought it.
What's next? There's a meeting tonight at the Douglass Community Center (where the Rally was, but in another room) at 7:00 to share stories, information, and decide what to do.
This announcement was made on the evening of August 17:
We have accomplished what we set out to do through the uniform boycott - we have shown that parents and students can take peaceful action against school policies made without our consent. It is now time to return to education, so we are recommending that students comply, creatively (wearing buttons, printed polo shirts, and/or armbands), with the dress code for the time being. We will continue to work for the end of mandatory uniforms at Atherton through legal, political, and other channels. We will continue to work with the school on lasting, meaningful, and positive solutions to problems at Atherton. We commend both the students who complied and those who did not for their willingness to stand up for their beliefs. We thank the administration for their relatively non-punitive response to an unprecedented situation.
Events before this date here.