Dressing for Success at Granada Hills High

My hat goes off to the success that Principal Brian Bauer and his staff have made of the largest high school in L.A. Granada Hills High has raised the bar for public school standards. Regarding “Wrinkles Seen in Dress Policy” (Sept. 11), I was a parent volunteer on the first day of school when dress code violators were requested to phone home for a change of clothes. I was elated to hear the strong parent support for our dress code. A number of parents thanked me for enforcing the code and for making it easier for them to enforce a standard at home. I did not encounter one parent arguing that day, even the ones who opted to leave work to bring a change of clothes for their student.

It is amazing to see how one or two people can try to negate the success of a new policy by making a phone call to the ACLU. If they have suggestions for improvement, why not just pitch in and help us do it better?

Michelle Kaplan

Northridge

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I have two teenage daughters and a son, and when asked to sign off as a parent on our high school’s new dress-code policy last year, I refused. That’s because I read the entire school policy. As in the L.A. school system, ours calls for detention for violations in the dress code (which is aimed almost entirely at girls). The biggest penalty for student-to-student sexual harassment, on the other hand, is mediation.

What kind of message does that send to our children? I have no problem with a dress code, but I thought “the dress code made me do it” defense went out in the ‘70s.

Teresa Monroe

Amsterdam, N.Y.