Chez Chesler

Masquerading as priests and superheroes, Boston Latin Academy seniors sent home -The Boston Globe According to a breaking story on Boston.com on Halloween afternoon, Halloween was no treat today for about a dozen Boston Latin Academy seniors barred from class for wearing costumes.

Despite warnings from their headmaster that costumes would be prohibited, about 50 students showed up dressed as superheroes, a life guard, a priest, a soldier in green fatigues, cows, clowns and the devil.

... a group of about a dozen seniors refused to change and were not allowed into school and are considered truant.

[Maria] Garcia-Aaronson, headmaster of the 1,700-student school for 15 years, said she stopped allowing students to wear costumes two years ago because of safety concerns. Previous students brought water guns to school on Halloween and sprayed classmates, causing fights, she said. Others rolled down school hallways on skateboards.

This seems pretty typical of the school administrators I've dealt with: water guns and skateboards are a problem, so institute a dress code. I looked on the BLA site for guidance as to what the seniors were doing wrong. Under Students BPS Policy Handbook was a pointer to the Boston Public Schools' Guide to the Boston Public Schools for Families and Students. Page 48 of that manual says of School Uniforms:

Under the Boston Public Schools School Uniform Policy, each school must choose one of three options:

• no school uniform;
• voluntary uniform or dress code; or
• mandatory (required) uniform or dress code.

Is there any information content in that? And since it's system-wide, shouldn't it be called the Boston Public Schools Uniform School Uniform Policy?

The manual continues:

Even if your child's school has a mandatory uniform policy, you have the right not to participate. To do this, send a letter to the principal stating why your child is not participating. School staff must allow students who are not wearing uniforms to attend school.

Garcia-Aaronson's actions don't seem to be in accordance with the written policy.