Pros
Central Dauphin High School in Pennsylvania mandates physical education uniforms because names written on them help teachers and substitutes keep track of who’s who in class. A teacher from that school district said uniforms help her keep track of non-students on school property. Uniforms can help schools institute discipline and provide a sense of school pride and unity among students. And uniforms eliminate any questions about what sort of clothes are appropriate and the distractions to learning that come along with inappropriate clothes.
Cons
But uniforms cost money, and a public education is supposed to be free. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state of California in 2010 to block enforcement of its gym uniform policy due in part to the cost. A parent at Marysville High School in California contacted the ACLU because she didn’t want to be limited to the retailer of the school district’s choosing for the purchase of gym clothes. Some students simply want the freedom to dress as they please, a right guaranteed them by a longstanding U.S. Supreme Court decision that permitted students to wear black armbands in school to protest the Vietnam War.