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The school board does not vote on a proposed school registration policy disputed by the ACLU.
HAZLE TWP. – The Hazleton Area School Board on Thursday voted down a controversial policy that would require students to wear school uniforms next school year and failed to vote on a controversial school registration policy opposed by a civil liberties group.
Met with loud cheering and applause from a packed meeting room, the board voted 6-3 against the uniform policy, so the current school dress code policy will remain in place.
Four students and seven adults spoke against the proposed uniform policy before the vote, and three adults supported it during public comment.
Teacher Lynn Frumkin, who was on the uniform policy committee, brought three outfits she said she bought at local stores and would meet uniform policy requirements to prove the clothing is not too expensive.
Several parents and students said uniforms would unnecessarily cost parents and the district extra money because parents would have to buy additional clothes for their children and the district would have to pay for clothes for qualifying low-income students. They also said there’s no correlation between uniforms and increased school safety or academic performance.
Board members Bob Mehalick, Paulette Platukis and Jack Shema voted for the policy. Shema said he based his vote on the recommendation of district administrators. Mehalick is an administrator in another school district and Platukis is a retired administrator at Hazleton Area.
Member Clarence John, a retired Hazleton Area vice principal, said there was never a dress code problem at the high school when he worked there because he and the other administrators enforced it.
Member Brian Earley said a student at 1999 Columbine High School massacre was able to smuggle 39 fire bombs into the school in his cargo pants, so there is evidence that a dress code can increase school safety by limiting dangerous contraband a student can carry. He voted against the policy because it did not address enforcement of a dress code.
In other business, when board President Platukis brought up the proposed 17-page registration packet for a vote, Maura McInerney, of the Education Law Center, asked the board to table the vote because the policy recently had been amended to address certain legal issues and the public had not had a chance to review the amended version.
Solicitor Chris Slusser recommended the board grant the request to allow for public review and he was concerned that the American Civil Liberties Union also had issues with the policy.
Earlier Thursday, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia law firm Cozen O’Connor issued a press release warning that the policy violated the law.
The proposed policy before amendments would require families new to Hazleton Area to produce four separate documents to verify their address and “recommends” that new parents submit detailed census information for the entire household, tax forms and other documents.
“The proposed enrollment and registration requirements for Hazleton violate both the letter and the spirit of Pennsylvania Department of Education regulations,” said Witold Walczak, legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
“The entire ‘procedure’ appears calculated to deter immigrants and others new to the district from enrolling their children in school. A school district should be encouraging education, not discouraging it.”