Thursday, October 2, 2008

Hoping For Hoodie Heaven

Yet another school has fallen into the trap of hoodie hell; this time Akron's North High is sending students home for daring to wearing warmer sweatshirts to take away the chill of the first mornings of autumn.

Hey, it's been downright COLD these mornings, but dress codes are dress codes and the rush by school administrators seeking to keep students from looking like the Unabomber sometimes ends up making bureaucrats like...well, bureaucrats.

Such is the case at Akron North High School, where apparently the Vikings should be tough enough to withstand wake-ups in the 40s. Today's story (it'll play big on local TV; here's a story made for the six o'clock news) is ironic given the sale of hooded sweatshirts bearing the names of local high schools at stores all across the region.

Within walking distance of the Akron Radio Center, for example, you could pick up a green or yellow Firestone hoodie for under $15, just the thing to show our school spirit so long as you don't show it in school.

This isn't the first time the dreaded hoodie has led to such disarray in our education system; a quick search reveals GlenOak changed their hoodie policy (it just makes me laugh simply writing those words) in November of 2007, just five days after WKYC posted video of the hoodie hoopla before students took their Thanksgiving holiday.

Akron's school officials were huddling to figure out how to interpret this challenge of the dress code that wound up empowering students to protest to the point where a couple dozen wound up suspended.

At least they got to go home and get warm.

1 comment:

  1. Just for the record, Firestone High School's "hoodie policy" allows students to wear a hoodie that promotes "school spirit." So that green or yellow hoodie emblazened with the school name that you can pick up around the corner from your office is A-okay.

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