Dress-Codes Applications in the US and the Negative PR Impact on Schools

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that schools in the US are harming their reputation by implementing unnecessary policies against students' dress and hairstyle while identifying the communication miss-steps such school is taking which are leading to unwanted and negative nationwide press attention. This research is intended to debate how incoherent and wrongly implemented dress codes that target specific demographics, can damages educational institutions' reputations. Sources such as newspapers and different reputable media outlets will be studied to identify how schools implementing arbitrary dress codes are portrayed. Secondary resources such as peer-review articles and research related to the topic will be thoroughly examined to find the antecedents and consequences of such actions led by the schools. As the first part of the primary research, a case study will be conducted to follow the steps that have brought a particular school into a media storm by targeting one specific student or group of students. To finalize interviews with a profiled public will be conducted to find out in more detail how a school's image has been affected by their approach to dressing codes.

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Introduction

Students at a Staten Island High School in New York, Tottenville High School, protested their school administrators' crackdown on the school's dress code. Glenn Schuck, reporting on 1010 Wins, a show on a local radio station, stated that at least 200 students were sent to the school's auditorium for what administrators termed as inappropriate dressing. Among the items that the school prohibited included sunglasses, halter tops, hats, as well as hooded sweatshirts. 90 percent of the students that were affected by the new rules were girls who expressed their anger noting that the school had specifically targeted them with the new rule ("NYC High School Dress Code Crackdown," 2014). The students were joined by angry parents who expressed their disbelief when school administrators and staff resorted to pulling students out of the school's hallway for inadequate or inappropriate dressing. Many of the girls were handed the school's gym shorts and athletic t-shirts to wear before they could be permitted to enter a class. In another incident, Stuyvesant High School Students demonstrated in West Street in the Lower Manhattan area of the City. The students were joined by others who poured in from nearby subway portals. During the demonstration, the students peeled off sweatshirts revealing spaghetti strap blouses and tank tops (Baker, 2012). The New City Department of Education states that to foster an environment that promotes educational achievement, there is a need to reduce the number of elements that distract both teachers and students, this is the reason why the department outlines a dress code to which students should adhere. These two incidents are not isolated; on the contrary, they are part of the widespread predicament that faces education authorities in the city of New York. The question that remains relates to whether the process of implementing the dress code failed to communicate to students, parents, and other stakeholders about the purpose behind the new rules. Subsequently, the dress code regulations point to a communication crisis in which students interpreted the implemented law differently from the intended objective that school authorities in New York sort to achieve.

The problem does not stop with the articles students are wearing but also on their hairstyles and in many of the cases are representations of students' culture or religious beliefs. Minorities are most likely targeted by the school regulation regarding appearance. Schools are specifically Targeting African hairstyles disregarding them as rebellious and distracting, without acknowledging that those hairstyles are not just part of a culture but the only viable way to style hair for many people. In 2017 a seven years old girl and straight-A student from Tulsa Oklahoma was spelled from her school after her family denied the school's request to get her dreadlock removed. As a result, the school put itself in a media storm that has had to reach the national outlets and the outrage of the local community. (US Today)

Hypothesis

Schools in the US are damaging their reputation and attracting negative media attention by targeting a specific group of students with their takes on dress codes and hairstyles, disregarding the cultural implication of such rulings that most of the time are arbitrary and have not strong support behind them.

Therefore, by having more consistency on the rules regarding student's appearance, and by communicating actively thru the right channels, schools in the US will avoid the negative attention from media and public and will increase their reputation, therefore, attracting more donors, volunteers, and overall community's support.

Problem Definition

The problem is that when implementing dress codes, schools have taken the sole role in the process in a bid to maintain their symbolic capital including image and reputation with regards to external and internal stakeholders. In other words, schools have refused to involve all players concerned relegating students and parents to the role of passive spectators that are expected to obey all stipulated rules without questioning them. Additionally, schools had also adopted the role of punishers, enforcing such rules in a way that for many people seems arbitrary and discriminatory. This approach is particularly detrimental since, in the information age, developments at one school can easily reach another institution via social media platforms. Coombs's idea of "situational crisis communication theory (SCCT)" which advocates for recreating a favorable public image of an organization can help shade light on the current problem (Frandsen and Johansen, 2012). Such is the case because the implemented dress-code regulations have been interpreted differently by students who deem the laws as an infringement on their right for self-expression through attire and feel targeted and discriminated against due to the applications of such dress codes.

If a researcher wants to study organizational stress (the organizations here include schools and the New York City Department of Education) in a manner that accounts for organizational complexity as well as dynamics, there is a need to take the third step in communication research. (Coombs & Holladay, 2009) This analysis is essential because communication has transformed from a transmission paradigm where the emphasis is on the sender, information distribution, and the intended effect, to an interaction where the focus is on the addressee, their interpretation of the message, as well as the development of meaning (Coombs & Holladay, 2009). Communication is no longer approached from a functionalist point of view; on the contrary, it is a "co-creation experience" (Coombs & Holladay, 2009). This means that the various elements that are involved in a communication process must take an active role in seeing the message through. In crisis communication, there is also the idea that modern communication is no longer compatible with text-oriented or rhetorical models; it is context-oriented and thus is best understood from a strategic point of view. With such as the principal point of view, the critical question that educators should be concerned with is: What does it achieve? In conceptualizing the current problem, it can be concluded that: The current issue facing the Departments of Education and schools about students' dress code is an emphasis on the sender, the information, and the intended effect. The objective of this study will be to find out whether replacing the functionalist approach with an interaction paradigm where the focus is on the addressee, their interpretation of the message, as well as the development of meaning can resolve the current communication crisis regarding the school dress code in New York City.

There is a long tradition throughout the world of students being required to wear the school uniform. While there is no definitive history of the school uniform, the practice of mandatory or enforced dress code for schools has existed for a variety of reasons and within a range of contexts governed by evolving societal and cultural mores. The practice, however, has traditionally been recognized as a conservative one arising out of rigid adherence to school discipline. Much of the imagery associated with the practice originates from the institution of the school uniform in England, where rigidly defined ideologies about both class and position took hold over extended periods of time. The British school uniform, in fact, was enforced both in the universities and the primary and secondary schools, becoming steeped in the symbolic imageries of class and symbolic status prevalent in that nation. It became an exhibit of a material culture that marked symbolic boundaries with genuine socioeconomic consequences. The ideology of school uniforms was also widely adopted in communist countries - for example, East European nations when they were under communist rule - were uniforms for different activities in the public sphere were a common occurrence. Pupils in uniform in such countries graduated to workers in uniform, and the uniform became a metaphor for their commitment to single social order (Brunsma 2004).

Anticipated Findings

According to Frandsen and Johansen, (2012) rhetorical model comprises two components. These two components include both the external as well as internal parameters of crisis communication. That means that we can expect that those schools that have implemented both-way communication regarding the dress codes and hairstyles and have involved all stakeholders including professors, students, and parents in the process are expected to not suffer any communication crisis during or after applying the dress codes. Active participation of all parties involved in a decision will most likely result in acceptance of the final decision. Therefore it is expected to find a higher rate of acceptance of dress codes implementation in the schools where students and parents were consulted and informed during the decision-making process.

On the other hand, it is expected that schools that have failed to apply the rhetorical model of crisis communication regarding their dress codes are increasingly likely to face acts of rebellion from students and protest from their parents, which is the case because students perceive the new regulation as authoritative and arbitrary. The perception of school administrators as authoritarian is particularly likely to result in rebellion because, the teenage phase in the course of growth and development is characterized by an elevated level of aggression among youths (Campbell, 2006; Li & Lerner, 2011). Moreover, the entrenched culture of a free society in the United States also increases the likelihood of rebellion against a new regulation that is perceived as repressive and discriminatory of students' right to self-expression (Luthar & Ansary, 2009).

It's expected that the mediums thru which the message gets communicated will also affect the perception of how such message is perceived. When messages of change regarding a controversial phenomenon such as dress code get transmitted thru obsolete mediums that are not interactive and do not allow the receiver to communicate back, the situation and ou...