School takes dress code out of mothballs

Corona del Mar High School officials are enforcing campus clothing regulations for first time in years.Last year’s Grad Night T-shirts are back in fashion at Corona del Mar High School. On any given day, there might be half a dozen students walking the commons with the black-and-white souvenirs.

It’s not nostalgia, however. This fall, Corona del Mar High began enforcing its dress code for the first time in years -- and assigning the leftover Grad Night shirts to students with inappropriate attire.

“They’re enforcing it, bottom line,” said Robin Rae Lewis, a member of the Parent Teacher Assn. “We’ve had the dress code every year, but we’ve never enforced it. This year, I can actually send my daughter and say, ‘You can’t wear that, or they’re going to give you the big T-shirt.’”

Corona del Mar High is among the most prestigious sites in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District -- last year, it made the best state standardized test scores of any secondary campus in town -- but in recent years, administrators often overlooked the rules regarding attire. The district’s student dress code prohibits a number of garments, including bare midriffs, spaghetti straps, halter tops, plunging necklines and miniskirts.

When new principal Fal Asrani took over this year -- replacing former principal Bob Metz, now the district’s assistant superintendent of secondary education -- she made student fashions a top priority.

“We’ve always had the policy,” she said. “But one of the concerns I was given when I came here was looking at the environment of the school.”

Now, students who come to campus showing belly buttons, cleavage or too much leg or shoulder may quickly find themselves rerouted to the front office. Once there, they can call home for a change of clothes -- or become a walking billboard for Grad Night 2005.

“That’s our first line of defense,” administrative intern Eleanor Moore said about the shirts stacked on the bookshelves in her office.

Most students at the school, she added, were accepting of the new enforcement, although the school still sees about five dress-code violations a day.

“We didn’t have to pull teeth to get there,” Asrani said. “We’re a very disciplined community, really.”

The dress-code patrols at Corona del Mar High have gotten a thumbs-up from parents and faculty and even school board members.

Board president Serene Stokes raved about her last visit to the school at Tuesday’s board meeting. Students gave the enforcement more mixed reviews, with some speaking out for personal freedom.

“I personally think a person’s clothes give them individuality,” said Lewis’ daughter, Cicily, a freshman at the school. “I can understand them having rules about midriffs and stomachs showing or too much cleavage, but stuff such as spaghetti straps and other things they won’t allow, I think, are kind of ridiculous.”

She noted, however, that she appreciated the rule prohibiting boys from wearing saggy pants.

“I go with that,” said Cicily, 14. “That’s totally fine.”

Sophomore Lauren Kraft, 15, said she found the new enforcement jarring after years with few guidelines.

“I don’t think it’s fair to start enforcing it after so many years when they haven’t cared,” she said. “They let you go so long for so many years dressing one way, and then suddenly, there’s a dress code.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.

20051015iodlvgknDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Eleanor Moore shows one of the T-shirts students must wear when they violate the dress code at Corona del Mar High School.