Trustees to Consider Teachers Dress Code

Complaining that teachers dress too casually, some even wearing shorts to school, the school board this week decided to continue consideration of a dress code.

“They’re not teaching at the beach,” said Trustee Aida Espinoza, who has spearheaded the move for a teacher dress code. “They looked like they had been hit by a truck.”

The Santa Ana Unified School District requires teachers to dress professionally. But board members Tuesday were concerned that a small number of teachers had taken to shorts, T-shirts and even uncombed hair.

Espinoza and other board members argued that students show more respect to teachers who are dressed up. Also, since students will be required to wear uniforms beginning in July, board members said, teachers should have similar standards, they said.

The school board decided to ask for legal advice on whether they can specify how teachers may dress.

The board is expected to discuss the issue again at its next meeting, May 13.

But board members including Espinoza and Nativo V. Lopez, indicated support for mandating ties for men.

The head of the teachers union, Gladys Hall-Kessler, dismissed the need for mandatory ties and said that each school should set its own standards.

Hall-Kessler added that knee shorts, for example, may be acceptable because some classrooms do not have air conditioning, and teachers may have activities with children on classroom carpets.