Elgin school bans hooded sweat shirts

ELGIN, Ill. -- A high school fed up with students wearing hooded sweat shirts to get around a dress code banning headgear has banned the shirts.

Gifford Street High School officials last week told students to leave the "hoodies" at home, Elgin School District U-46 spokesman Larry Ascough said. It's a hard stance that has angered some students and their parents, who say they shouldn't have to pay for new cold-weather clothing and that the rule is silly.

"The school sent my daughter home because she was wearing a hooded sweat shirt," Jim Frederick said. "Come on. It had Tinkerbell on it." Ascough said students knew better than to wear the shirts to school this week.

"The students were warned," he said. "They chose to defy those warnings." Some schools have banned hoodies because they say students use them to indicate gang affiliation. Frederick said when he asked why his daughter was sent home he was told hoods can be used to hide contraband.

Round Lake High School ended a five-year ban last November. Assistant Principal Shelley Gray said the policy was arbitrary and too hard to enforce.

Chicago Public Schools do not have a dress code, though individual schools can impose them, spokeswoman Joi Mecks said. None bans hoodies specifically, though some have policies banning sweat shirts of any kind.

At Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, Assistant Principal Lynn McCarthy said the gang-wary dress code allows hooded sweat shirts so long as students keep the hoods down.

Some Elgin parents said the policy is a financial burden and should not have been sprung on them in the middle of the school year with no warning.

"A lot of parents can't afford to buy a new wardrobe for their kids during the school year," said Margaret Frederick. "We had no warning, no letter home to the parents." The Fredericks' daughters, 17-year-year-old Jamie and 16-year-old Christine, have wardrobes heavy on hoodies.

Ascough said the students had plenty of warning and are old enough to be held accountable for violating the policy.