Legal Opinion Backs Up Student Dress Code

After consulting legal opinion, the Windham School District will continue to enforce its dress code despite a resident questioning the constitutionality of the policy.

"According to legal council, all of the restrictions found in the Windham School District's dress code can be found in many upheld by courts," said the notice, read publicly by school board vice chair Michelle Farrell.

The notice went on to read that the goal of the board was to provide guidelines to dress to provide a respectful learning environment.

Bannister vs. Paradis case law from 1970 was also referenced in the board's note.

In the Bannister decision, the following decision was made:

We realize that a school can, and must, for its own preservation exclude persons who are unsanitary, obscenely or scantily clad. Good hygiene and the health of the other pupils require that dirty clothes of any nature, whether they be dress clothes or dungarees, should be prohibited. Nor does the Court see anything unconstitutional in a school board prohibiting scantily clad students because it is obvious that the lack of proper covering, particularly with female students, might tend to distract other pupils and be disruptive of the educational process and school discipline.

Windham resident Michael Hatem brought the concern to the school board in early September. He asked the board to discontinue enforcement until the validity of the policy could be addressed,

At that time, Superintendent Henry LaBranche said that the code would continue to be enforced.

The dress code was adopted in March 2011 but wasn't implemented until the start of this school year. The code guidelines were built with the help of students.