THE DOS AND DON'TS OF FASHION

Sagging jeans, exposed belly buttons, "Daisy Duke" shorts, the Budweiser frogs and Coed Naked apparel are all popular on the teen-age fashion scene.

But if you get caught wearing them in area high schools, you can expect to be very unpopular with school principals.

School administrators in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston and Charleston public schools said they monitor student fashion for moral and educational value and change the dress code as "disruptive" trends and fashions come into style.

"I just don't think anyone has the right to show their tails or the prospects thereof," said Charleston principal Joe Forrest. "We realize the designers design sagging pants and things like that, and those are the kinds of things that cause us trouble."

All of the schools have a written dress code in student handbooks that generally outlaws the wearing of short shorts, short tops, and short mini-skirts, hats or other headgear, and sagging pants. The dress codes all also have a clause allowing other apparel to be considered improper at the principal's discretion.

Administrators agreed that some of today's clothing trends interfere with the learning process, which is why they forbid them in the classroom. However, they said, there are other reasons for dress codes as well.

"We don't allow any gang or drug-related apparel," said Cape Girardeau High School principal Randie Fidler. "We meet once each month with the police department, and they bring us up to date on gang-related issues."

Jackson High School principal Vernon Huck said safety is another concern shaping his school's dress code, which is why Jackson students cannot wear chains on their billfolds. "We don't allow anything that could be used as a weapon, and (the billfold chains) don't add anything," he said.

Charleston school administrators are facing questions regarding whether students should be allowed to wear coats or carry backpacks in the classroom because of safety concerns. "There have been some questions about backpacks and large coats, where you could hide paraphernalia we don't allow," Forrest said. He said the items had not as yet been forbidden, but they might be in the future.

Sikeston public schools superintendent Bob Buchanan said his school's dress code hasn't changed since around 1969. "We've fought that battle in the '60s and I don't plan to fight it again," Buchanan said. "Clothing we feel is in bad taste will not be allowed, but our students generally have a self-imposed uniform of Levis, tennis shoes and a shirt."

Oddly enough, while students are not allowed to make fashion statements in the classroom, they have much more freedom at after school functions, like ballgames and school dances.

Administrators said one reason the students are able to get away with more at these times is because it's harder to monitor them when college-age and older adults attending the functions are wearing the same trends.

"We had a group who decided they wanted to wear ski masks to a game once, and I made them take them off," said Forrest. "We have the same dress codes for dances and school functions, but usually, though, I think the kids get away with a little bit more with the shorts and skirts than they normally would."

Most students interviewed said teachers and administrators put too much emphasis on what students wear. "If our parents let us wear it, what's the big deal?" several students said.

Forrest said principals are not asking for much from students in how they dress. "All we ask them to do is keep the top of their pants above their hips, and basically to keep the cracks of their tails from showing.

"As far as I'm concerned, we can put on a uniform today and that would be fine with me, and I mean for administrators, teachers and students."

Which basically means that a truly together fashion do for students is almost certainly a fashion don't for at least one principal.