The school district in Savannah, Georgia has announced plans for a dress code for teachers that will ban jeans, stiletto heels and exposed cleavage — every single day.
Taxpayer-funded teachers will also have to stop chewing gum, cover up their tattoos, stop listening to their damn iPods at work, and knock it off with the dizzying use of cologne under the proposed dress code.
Administrators with the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools presented the new dress code to the school board earlier this month for consideration, reports the Savannah Morning News.
Other forbidden wardrobe choices include capri pants, T-shirts, super-short skirts, gym shoes, flip-flops, clog shoes, and all manner of shorts under the sun.
In addition to gum, iPods and excessive perfume and cologne, the dress code also prohibits unnatural hair dying (e.g., pink); garish fingernail polish colors; and nasty, unkempt fingernails.
Acceptable apparel for female Savannah teachers includes professional dresses, pantsuits and blouses. For men, dress shirts, ties — even a suit coat perhaps — and a decent pair of socks are satisfactory garb.
“We have received several complaints about the appearance of some of our staff and it has been the subject of many conversations,” deputy school district superintendent Ann Levett told the Morning News. “Although this is a vacation destination, we are not tourists and we should not look dress like we are.”
“We want to reinforce that this is a professional environment and we also want to make sure people are dressing appropriately to avoid preventable injuries,” Levett added.
Is the local teachers union protesting the revised dress code? You bet!
Savannah Federation of Teachers president Theresa Watson admitted that some of the new rules are sensible but she took issue with other ones.
“They’re on their feet all day. They don’t want teachers just sitting at a desk anymore,” Watson told the Morning News.
“They do a lot of standing and walking and they should be able to wear comfortable tennis shoes if they need that extra cushion and support,” the teachers union boss added.
Watson suggested that some teachers — special education teachers, for example — are very active and must react to student actions in ways that, say, a typical English teacher would not.
Under the new rules, principals and other administrators would be responsible for enforcing the dress code.
Kerfuffles involving dress codes for teachers and dismayed teachers union leaders arise fairly regularly across America.
In 2013, for example, the Little Rock, Ark. school district announced a dress code that would require teachers to wear underwear. Female teachers would have to wear bras, too. And the very worst of all: No spandex. (The next thing that happened, as an aside, was that the Arkansas Department of Education voted to assume control over management of the school district.) (RELATED: Little Rock School District Will Now Make Teachers Wear Underwear)
In 2014, the school board in the most populous county in West Virginia attempted to institute a teacher dress code banning strapless dresses, low-cut blouses, blue jeans and spandex. Conspicuous tattoos and facial piercings were also slated to become verboten. (RELATED: West Va. Teachers Union Insists On Constitutional Right To Wear Spandex, Short Skirts)
Last year, the Cleveland Teachers Union strenuously objected to the implementation of a basic dress code which banned jeans and asked teachers to dress professionally at 23 failing public schools. (RELATED: Cleveland Teachers Union Fights For Right To Wear Jeans, Flip Flops, BEER T-SHIRTS)
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