Collier County school leaders meeting to discuss a dress code for the upcoming year

Collier County school leaders will decide what can and cannot be on your child’s face mask as they return to campus for the new school year.

“Vulgar or disruptive,” those are the two keywords when it comes to how the school can enforce what students can and cannot wear.

But when asked to elaborate they couldn’t.

According to the current school conduct code, clothes cannot be inflammatory, suggestive, or inappropriate.

That includes references to drugs, alcohol, or weapons.

But in today’s climate school districts may see students wearing clothing with political affiliation or even a reference to the Black Lives Matter movement.

We asked lawyer Pamella Seay, who is also a professor of justice studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, how they should handle that.

“For example, I teach a class on constitutional law. If someone came in wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt I would certainly let them wear it. But we would certainly have a discussion on the first amendment…Why you are permitted or why I couldn’t prohibit you from doing that. So using it as a catalyst for discussion is probably a very good thing. However, if it is disrupting The process of education then you can prohibit that,” Seay said.

Seay also tells us that schools can get into murky water if they allow teachers to have too much discretion over this.

She believes there should be one voice in the building like the principal dictating what does and does not work.