Security guards, delivery personnel, police officers, firefighters, the military and professional athletes all wear uniforms to work. You don't hear the adults complaining about having their individuality suppressed. Most are happy to wear a uniform and not have to buy an expensive ''business'' wardrobe. When I worked in the office of a public high school in South Florida for nine years, I witnessed the difference a uniform makes in student behavior. Athletes, dressed in shirts, ties and dress pants on game days or ROTC uniforms, are more polite and not disruptive in the classroom.
Children tend to behave if dressed in ''serious'' clothes.
Uniforms will also help school personnel identify visitors and trespassers on a school campus. As a parent of a teenage daughter, I would have welcomed uniforms, especially at the high school level. The fashion clothes sold in the junior departments of the large department stores are in violation of most school dress codes. Shorts and skirts that are too short, tank tops, long dresses and skirts with slits too high, etc., are about all you can find. Uniforms in public schools will teach children to express their individuality and creativity in the areas of academics, the arts, athletics, and leadership, as it has in the private schools.