AUDIO TRANSCRIPT: Former Syracuse teacher shares mental health worries about school uniform proposal
Brooke Kilgore: Staying in the 315, Syracuse City School District is looking for feedback on whether to enforce a uniform policy for grades k-through-eight. NCC News’ Griffin Bloomstein is live in studio with more.
Griffin Bloomstein: Tomorrow might be April Fools’ day, but the Syracuse City School Board is not joking about wanting to find if students and families will support a school uniform policy. Although move would only affect students up until eighth grade, former Syracuse school teacher Anne Serlin is worried about the effects on mental health.
Anne Serlin: I don’t think teenagers’ self-esteem has been definitely established by ninth grade.
Bloomstein: The district would provide the uniforms for free. Syracuse has one of the highest child poverty rates among larger cities in the country. Serlin believes that the uniforms can relieve stress off of families, but worries it may limit students’ ability to convey their emotions.
Serlin: You don’t want kids who are exactly the same as other kids. You need kids to be able to express themselves in many ways, and some of those ways are in their clothing.
Bloomstein: The school board will hear feedback in the next month. Griffin Bloomstein NCC News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The Syracuse City School Board wants to find out if students and families will support a school uniform policy. Although the move would only affect students up until eighth grade, former Syracuse school teacher Anne Serlin is worried about the effects on students’ mental health.
“I don’t think teenagers’ self-esteem has been definitely established by ninth grade,” Serlin said.
The district would provide the uniforms for free, which can help families because Syracuse has one of the highest child poverty rates among larger cities in the country. Serlin believes that the uniforms can relieve stress off of families, but worries it may limit students’ ability to convey their emotions.
“You don’t want kids who are exactly the same as other kids. You need kids to be able to express themselves in many ways, and some of those ways are in their clothing,” Serlin said.
The school board will hear feedback in April.