High School In Hot Water Over Parent Dress Code

Dress codes banning items like spaghetti-strap tank tops and baseball caps are common at high schools these days. But a high school in Houston, Texas, is raising eyebrows by banning leggings, pajamas, and hair rollers on school grounds–for the students’ parents.

The list of clothing items off-limits at James Madison High School includes satin caps, bonnets, hair rollers, torn jeans, Daisy Dukes, sagging pants, pajamas of any kind, and “leggings that are showing your bottom.” Other no-nos for parents are “very low-cut tops” and “dresses that are up to your behind.”

James Madison High’s principal, Carlotta Outley Brown, is taking the dress code very seriously. Controversy erupted after she turned away a parent who was wearing a T-shirt dress and headscarf on campus.

“Parents, we do value you as a partner in your child’s education,” Brown wrote in an April 9 letter announcing the new dress code. “You are your child’s first teacher…We are preparing your child for a prosperous future. We want them to know what is appropriate and what is not appropriate for any setting they might be in.”

Many within the school district and the media have criticized the dress code, calling it “elitist” and saying it targets minorities and people who lack the income to buy a new wardrobe. Fifty-eight percent of the students at Madison High School are Latino, and 40 percent are African-American.