The Texas middle school cited student mental health concerns when it announced the new dress code.

A Texas school district, facing backlash after one of its middle schools banned black clothes, has said the dress code change was “prematurely communicated”.

Charles Middle School, part of the El Paso Independent School District, cited student mental health concerns when it announced its new dress code’s ban of black outfits.

But the school district said in a statement on Wednesday evening that Charles Middle School had adopted the “proposed modifications” without district sign off.

Local media reported that Charles Middle School Principal Nick DeSantis shared the policy with parents earlier this week, noting that students wearing “black tops and black bottoms” had “taken over”.

The “look”, he wrote, “has become more associated with depression and mental health issues and/or criminality than with happy and health kids ready to learn”.

Many parents and community members shared their scepticism about the connection between clothing colour and mental health.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    If you have a problem with what kids are wearing to school, then provide free school uniforms.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
        0·
        3 months ago

        Uniforms so improve things. Everyone looks the same, nobody is making fun of someone’s clothes, nobody is wearing rich or poor clothes, etc.

        • cheers_queers@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          3 months ago

          yeah i grew up forced to look like every other kid and it messed me up. how about we just stop judging kids for their clothing choices and leave it at that??

          • stoly@lemmy.world
            0·
            3 months ago

            Your problem is with human nature, not clothing. That monkey behavior is part of us.

  • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 months ago

    How the fuck can you be so stupid as to think the clothes you wear make you be a certain way instead of being reflective of the way you are?

    Even neglecting the fact that a ton of people who wear all black clothing aren’t depressed at all and just like the look, does he really think forcing kids to change their clothes will somehow fix anything other than costing their families money to buy new wardrobes?

    • Trubble@startrek.website
      0·
      3 months ago

      Some friends and I went to eat at a fancy sit down place in our very late teens, dressed to the 9’s in black, baggy or lacy duds, eyeliner all around. A couple there asked the restaurant to kick us out, they didn’t like our way of dressing, it was rude(?!). Since we were polite and paying customers, the waiter just let us know, and that the staff had 0 problems with us… we should inform him if anyone trys to say anything to us. That staff there were some of the few nice people we encountered in our goth days.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    So instead of addressing why the “depressed” kids are wearing black we can just prevent them from wearing the color. Problem solved!

  • Yer Ma@lemm.ee
    0·
    3 months ago

    I’m sure they just meant “Black clothes” as in clothes that black people wear

  • BertramDitore@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Over the years, as I’ve solidified my own “style,” I’ve slowly added more and more black clothes to my wardrobe, because you can’t really ever go wrong with black. It’s stylish, slimming, simple, and elegant. It matches pretty much everything, and it works for men, women, and anyone else who likes to look slick. I still like a splash of color every once in a while, but most of my clothes–tops especially–are black now.

    Fuck these backwards assholes for thinking they get to tell people how to dress.

      • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        The heat is the only justification I would consider for something like this; I could see the shimmering wall of heat above texas from a state away in Oklahoma just by looking south in the SPRING, not even summer.

        I would not be surprised if you could get statistics on heatstroke from people wearing dark vs light colored clothing in Texas.

  • collapse_already@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Just waiting for the school district to issue a clarification that they were talking about race and not hue. Would be even more of a shit show.

    Sounds like another form of “just quit being sad” advice.