Hello,

I am a sophmore at Ponchatoula High School, and today roughly 300 students were suspended for uniform violations. Now this may sound obsurd, but I don't think I have had one hour at school so far where my learning hasn't been inturupted by control crazed principals checking uniforms. I mean come on, is it really necessary to spend 35 minutes of our first hour checking to see if there is a one-inch tan bird on our tan-colored pants?

This is a flaw in our school system. there is a need for a more focused staff.

Leanne Keen, PHS student

I'm a student at Ponchatoula High and I understand completely the idea of uniforms, but when teachers are constantly interrupting classes to check the dress code it tells you that it's gone too far. When we've reached a stage where our educators are more worried about what we're wearing than our education, it's time to admit that uniforms have become more of a hindrance than a help.

Every student I know gets up for class five days a week, pulls on a blue shirt and khaki pants, and then goes to sit quietly in a desk for hours on end. Their price for this compliance isn't high: A little slack when it comes to the emblems on the back of our pants.

On Aug. 21, 2007, roughly 300 students were suspended due to some absurd dress code violation. I am not disagreeing with uniforms, I am simply implying that the principal and teachers should begin to focus more on what we are learning in class rather than looking for uniform violations.

Rachel Ward, PHS student

Hi, I'm Nicholas Lemoine. I am a sophomore at Ponchatoula High School. I am in four advanced classes and an active member in JROTC. I am contacting you about the outrageous uniform policies at our school. 350-400 students have already been sent home for out of school suspension for dress code. Many atheletes have been removed from teams for being suspeneded. The dress code rules they are breaking are outrageous!

Nicholas Lemoine, PHS student

I am currently a junior at Ponchatoula High School, several students and myself are concerned about the preposterous dress code regulations at our institution. On Aug. 21, 2007, roughly 300 students and myself were suspended from school due to dress code violations, which consisted of a logo found on the left breast of our polo shirts, which is in fact the same color as said polo shirts. This suspension resulted in my being dismissed from the cheerleading squad for the remainder of the year. This, we feel, is excessive, and we believe the school's priorities are skewed. The school should be more concerned with our educational needs than trivial clothing matters.

According to a Times Picayune article dated May 23, 2007, the ACLU has sued the Tangipahoa School District five times over the past 13 years for civil liberty violations. Apparently, these law suits have done nothing to thwart civil liberty violations perpetrated by Ponchatoula High School.

Elyssa Schexsnayder

Please run an article concerning the uniform problem at Ponchatoula High. The administration has a strange obsession with being picky about uniforms, rather than focusing on the quality of education. Any student, regardless of color or condition, will usually voice the same opinion: This is stupid. I'm here to learn.

Last school year, students were being suspended instead of put in In- school Suspension, which was filled. Uniforms do not solve anything except the question of what to wear. And even that is a problem at PHS. Uniforms do not make it hard to distinguish social or economic class. To think that mere clothes could hide these things actually insinuates that Ponchatoula High students are quite primitive.

An overly strict and useless policy such as the one now implemented only causes resentment between administration and students. Teachers find disobedience disrespectful. It isn't disrespectful, because it isn't personal. At least the student bothered to attend school that day.

Emily Villemarette, PHS alumnus

My school, PHS, has enforced a new school "rule" that has caused between 300 to 400 students to be suspended from school for having untucked shirts and logos on pants. We just made a week today and now have this many suspensions. They interrupt our class time to lecture us on dress code, and that is interfering with our education. Instead of going to the school board who has shut us down on countless occasions, we have decided to e-mail you to get someone who can help by getting this known to the public. Some of my fellow schoolmates and I have decided to get something done.

Heath McDaniel, PHS student

This year schools have gotten way out of hand. The dress code they now have doesn't even make any sense. They have gotten so bad with it that over 400 students got suspended from school at Ponchatoula High ALONE! They are taking time out of class where kids could be learning to check pants. And the students getting suspended for something like that are missing out on classes that they really need to succed in life.

Christian Bunn, PHS student

Ponchatoula High School is ridiculous. I think the public should know where their priorities stand. In this first week of school we have had 400 students suspended due to violation of dress code and every day we waste 10 minutes of class for teachers to thoroughly check our dress code. Are students not at school to learn? All teachers keep air conditioners very cold, yet somehow they always find a problem with our school jackets. I tell you one jacket acceptable, Ponchatoula High School jackets. Is there a better way to raise money? I just feel like the public, parentals, of the youth at Ponchatoula High School should be warned!

Brett Kling, PHS student

Ponchatoula High School has gone too far this year. Numerous amounts of students are being told, "No, you can't have an education, unless you're dressed properly." Every morning the teachers are told to line us up (as if it's military) and do a dress code check. If the students have dress code violation they are sent to the office and most of the time are suspended. Some 300 to 400 students were suspended within the first week of school. Now personally, I think any kid who is at school to have an education and better themselves, shouldn't be told the only way to do that is to conform to what Ponchatoula High thinks is a "proper student."

Just a day ago a girl was told she wasn't allowed to join track and volleyball because it was her second time she had an inch long logo on her pants, wow a real trouble maker she must have been. This [has] gone too far. Other students and myself think the media is the only way to possibly get our point through.

Our schools should care about us, want us to go further in life and hopefully go on to college. They should care more about what we have to say, and us learning the material we need to, not a small logo on our pants.

Sierra Chichester, PHS student

About 400 students were suspended within the previous three days at Ponchatoula High School. Most of these suspensions were due to emblems on the pants, such as the eagle emblem from American Eagle. Shirt emblems were accounted for also.

Students are being forced out of class and sent to the disciplinarian for all uniform infractions. Students plea to please stop subtracting our education for minor uniform infractions, and let us wear out emblems!

Jay Coffey, PHS student

I am a current high school student that attends Ponchatoula High school in Tangipahoa Parish. We have been wearing uniforms for about seven years now. But the past four years, things have gotten worse with them and this year has to be the worst ever. We have an estimated 1,600 students at our school. The number of students suspended already is 300-400. I got that from somebody who heard it straight from the principal's mouth. We just started school last Wednesday.

They are suspending students for the following: Untucked shirts, logos on shirts, logos on pants, jackets, sweatshirts, regulation school board approved jackets and sweatshirts, two-seamed pants, pants that are too light, pants that are too dark, having stubble on your face that is not shaved, side burns going past your ear, and probably many more that I am forgetting.

I am bringing this to your attention because it is messing with our education. Our first-hour teachers have to stop class in the morning, inspect us like we are soldiers which takes about five to 10 minutes. Then if you are out of dress code, you are sent to get a violation notice which takes another five to 10 minutes depending on how many students you are waiting behind. It is also affecting our education in another way. The school principal and assistant principals will interrupt our classes to question and inspect who is in dress code or not. They have become so obsessed with what we have on that it's hard for us to get an education.

They claim the uniform policy is here because they did not want people to be singled out for what they are wearing. What are they doing right now? The school is singling certain people out for what they are wearing. We go to a public school because we can't afford private school. So we buy the uniforms that we can afford. Sales play a big part in what we buy. If American Eagle, Hollister, Old Navy or other stuff is on sale, that's what we have to buy. They have logos on them and that causes a problem. They want us to buy stuff without a logo, but that stuff doesn't always meet our budgets. They also do not want us wearing fackets and sweatshirts that our school board has approved of. They tell us it is inappropriate. But yet our school board approved it. It makes no sense to me.

Corey Price, PHS student