Dressed in shorts and T-shirts, the Felbinger brothers of Whitehall could have been headed to school instead of just enjoying a nice summer vacation day. Mark, 17, and Matt, 15, said they often wear those same clothes to Baldwin High School, where in the fall Mark will be a senior and Matt will be a sophomore. Both said they’re glad that students at Baldwin High School aren’t required to wear uniforms, a policy that some public schools are starting to adopt. But uniforms are being considered in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, and could become the rule within the next two years. ‘I think it would be boring. Everyone would be the same,’ Mark Felbinger said. ‘There wouldn’t be any variety.’ Also, he said, more formal clothes wouldn’t be as comfortable as the jeans and T-shirts most students wear. Baldwin-Whitehall school directors are looking into a school uniform policy, after several parents complained last month about the way students are dressing, district spokeswoman Renee Stockey said. The uniform most likely would consist of khaki, blue or black pants paired with a polo-type shirt, schools Superintendent Charles Faust told the school board at a meeting Wednesday night. ‘It would be a flexible uniform, similar to West Mifflin,’ Faust said, referring to the neighboring school district’s switch to uniforms in recent years. Students would not have to be concerned about the change until at least the 2002-03 school year, because there is not enough time to implement a policy before the start of the next school year. Faust said he planned to continue to gather information on the subject and address the issue again in the fall. There are legal issues that would have to be addressed before a policy could be initiated, he added. Several school board members said they would like to send out a questionnaire to parents before making any decision. Most said they would be reluctant to institute a uniform policy. ‘I don’t think it’s up to this board to decide what kids wear to school,’ board President Ronald Boyle said. ‘The young people are the ones who have to wear the stuff. Their parents are the ones who are going to have to make them get into it each morning.’ Other school board members suggested that the answer to the problem might not be school uniforms, but a stricter or better enforced dress code. ‘If the dress code is too lax then we need to address that,’ board member Paul Homer said. Matt Felbinger said the current dress code – which bans halter tops, for example, and requires that girls’ shirt straps be at least 2 inches wide – isn’t enforced consistently. However, school officials do enforce the rule prohibiting shirts with obscene messages or advertisements for alcoholic beverages, he said. Another part of the dress code that is enforced is the ‘no hats in the building’ rule. ‘We used to have a hat day once a year, but then they found out it was against the school dress code,’ Mark Felbinger said. Teachers at the school follow a dress code, usually wearing shirts and ties or polo shirts, he said. On ‘casual Fridays’ they can wear jeans if they make a donation to charity. The teens said they are not distracted by what their peers wear to school, and they don’t think students would accept the idea of uniforms. ‘I think there would be a group of people that just wouldn’t wear uniforms,’ Matt Felbinger said.

Mark Felbinger said the school policy of sending students home from school if they are not dressed properly could work to a student’s advantage. ‘If I had a test or a final I didn’t want to take, I could just not wear the uniform and they would send me home,’ he said. Kendra Vinoverski, 15, who will be a sophomore in the fall, said the denim shorts and tank top outfit she was wearing Friday would have gotten her in trouble at the middle school, but not at the high school where the rules are more relaxed. Vinoverski, who lives in Whitehall, said she thinks it would be wrong for the district to require public school students to wear uniforms. The current dress code is reasonable, but some students do push the limits, she said. ‘Some people come in revealing clothes and skirts that are way too short.’ Mark Felbinger said if the district does institute a uniform policy, the students would no longer be able to wear shirts that bear the school’s name. ‘That would be ridiculous because that is where we go,’ he said. Susan Schmeichel can be reached at sschmeichel@tribweb.com or (412) 306-4527.

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