In many Long Beach schools, graduating students donate or sell their used uniforms to needy families. In the year following the establishment of the uniform policy, Long Beach school officials found that overall school crime decreased 36 percent. Fights decreased 51 percent, sex offenses decreased 74 percent, weapons offenses decreased 50 percent, assault and battery offenses decreased 34 percent, and vandalism decreased 18 percent. Less than 1 percent of the students chose not to wear uniforms. Across the country, the adoption of school uniforms is so new that it s impossible to tell whether it will have a long-term impact on school violence.
Critics have doubts.
And some parents, students, and educators find uniforms coercive and demeaning. Some students complain that uniforms turn schools into prisons. Whenever a violent incident occurs on a campus, there usually are calls to institute stricter security. Many school districts are turning to security measures such as metal detectors, surveillance cameras, X-ray machines, high fences, uniformed security guards, and increased locker searches. Machines similar to those that line airports now stand in many school entrances.