RESEDA : High School Adopts Revised Dress Code

There was a time when teachers and parents encouraged students to wear clean, pressed white shirts to school.

But now, bolstered by state legislation signed by Gov. Pete Wilson in September--allowing schools throughout the state to ban gang-related apparel from campus--white T-shirts, ironed and worn as outerwear with creased sleeves, are no longer acceptable at Reseda High School.

For more than 20 years, the Los Angeles Unified School District has allowed its campuses to establish their own dress codes. Most of them--including Reseda--already had some form of code in place when the legislation, declaring gang-related apparel hazardous to the health and safety of the school environment, was passed.

But Reseda High Principal Robert Kladifko said the legislation helped legitimize specific definitions of gang-related clothing, leading the school’s shared decision-making council last week to vote in favor of a tougher dress code.

The new code will not go into effect until January, but administrators are already asking students not to wear Pendleton shirts buttoned to the top, pants split at the sides and baggy pants that won’t stay up without a belt.

“The baggy pants situation is a little tough,” Kladifko said.

Since it is often difficult to differentiate between current trends and gang-related clothing, Reseda High administrators asked the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley gang-prevention unit to help them identify candidates for the code.

Officer Tony Newsom said that since the legislation passed, Reseda is the only school to request the officers’ expertise in devising a dress code.

“Reseda’s out there on the front line,” Newsom said. “They’re really a step ahead of their time.”

He noted that whether students who wear such clothing are in a gang is not the only issue.

“A lot of these kids watch videos, and they see some of the performers portraying gangsters,” he said. “But if they go out wearing that attire, when a gang member goes out to retaliate, they’re not gonna stop to ask if the kid is in a gang or not.”