Niu Valley students adjusting to new look

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

NIU VALLEY — It's recess at Niu Valley Middle School, and the campus is colored black, red and white.

In T-shirts, that is. The school is just three weeks into its first year of required uniform shirts, designed and approved by the student body. The school joins a growing list of middle schools around the state that have required students to wear the same kind of shirt in a bid to improve campus security and eliminate distractions.

Studies have shown that when uniform shirts are worn, students are better able to focus on their schoolwork and not on what others are wearing, said Principal Ann Paulino.

And the shirts improve security, too.

"Our issue here was that we have an open campus and anyone can walk on it," she said. "We needed to know who belongs and who doesn't. It was a safety and security issue."

Off campus, the shirts can be a double-edged sword, with student misbehavior reflecting on the entire school.

"Our challenge is to tell the students they need to feel pride toward their school," Paulino said. "We tell them they represent all of us."

Three years ago the school instituted a strict dress code, which banned the use of underwear that peeks above boys' waistbands, spaghetti-strap tops, bare midriffs and plunging necklines. The uniform shirts make most of those prohibitions moot.

It was the school's School/Community-Based Management Council that decided last year to require students to wear uniform T-shirts. But the students didn't like the designs that the council came up with, so they designed a logo and chose the colors themselves, Paulino said.

The shirts have won ready acceptance by many.

Paulino said about 98 percent of her students wear the shirts. Parents can opt their children out of the uniform requirement, but only after talking to the principal.

"I like the new uniform shirts," said eighth-grader Jeremy Riveral. "I don't have to buy that much clothes. I have three red and three black shirts. "

Uniforms may stymie individuality, but there's plenty of time for that after school and on weekends, said Carolyn Taum, a parent.

The Board of Education allows schools to establish dress codes, including adopting uniforms, said Greg Knudsen, state Department of Education spokesman.

Some of the other schools requiring a uniform shirt are Stevenson, Moanalua, Jarrett and Kalakaua middle schools; August Ahrens Elementary School; Wai'anae and Waiakea high schools; and Highlands, Ilima and Waipahu intermediate schools.

Three girls on their way back to class recently after morning recess complained that the uniform shirts weren't very flattering.

"They're ugly," said seventh-grader Saskia Iha. "They don't match anything. I don't like wearing what everyone else is wearing."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.