Auer Avenue students lineup on the first day of school. (Photo by Adam Carr)

Middle-school students on the Auer Avenue School News Team discuss the pros and cons of the new MPS requirement that students wear uniforms to school.

Due to a recent policy change by the Milwaukee Public School’s leadership, next school year, all MPS students will wear uniforms, unless two-thirds of families opt out.

Auer Avenue has had a uniform policy for the past three years, so many of the 6th graders on the Auer Avenue News Team have experienced school with and without uniforms. Since we feel qualified to have opinions on the topic, we’d like to share some of our thoughts about the benefits and issues with uniforms, in our own words.

For school uniforms:

Some believe schools where students wear uniforms are less likely to have altercations. Uniforms can lead to less bullying, because if all students are wearing the same thing, students won’t talk about each other’s clothes, which will lead to fewer arguments and fights based on those altercations.

Also, students look more studious and more organized. This cuts down on class distractions and helps keep everybody from ribbing each other in class.

Uniforms help parents to save their money for other things. Also, we don’t have to wear our regular clothes, so they don’t get messed up and don’t wear out as quickly.

Some students think they should take a lead in what they’re wearing and set an example for their classmates and younger students. And uniforms create school spirit, because we’re all wearing our school colors.

Against school uniforms

Although there are many reasons students should wear uniforms, many students think that uniforms are not needed. Students believe that uniforms take away their individuality. When everyone wears the same thing, it takes away students’ ability to express creativity and style, which is important to youth like us.

Uniforms will not solve all of a school’s problems, because bullying still exists even with uniforms.

Also, our uniforms are plain and the colors get boring. Many students would be willing to wear uniforms if they had a stronger message. And if everybody looks the same, nobody gets compliments.

At Auer, teachers and principals are not required to wear uniforms. We feel that if students have to wear uniforms, so should everyone in the building.

We thought of a compromise. Maybe we can have a day off where we can wear whatever we want on Friday, like an “Auer Casual Friday.”

More than anything, we feel like students should have a voice. Whether we have to wear uniforms, or not, makes a big difference to us and we want to be heard.