Assistant Principal Jim Melia said that West Shore will not have uniforms anytime soon.

“The dress code committee met, and one of the things they wanted me to do at the end of one of the meetings was explore the possibility of uniforms,” he said. “No matter what, [Rick] Fleming would have to approve it, because he’s the principal. But he didn’t like it, so we’re not going to do it.”

Melia said there was one major factor that contributed to Fleming’s disapproval of uniforms.

“Mr. Fleming didn’t like the idea of uniforms, and his reasoning was that the public and other schools already consider West Shore to be an elitist school,” Melia said. “They already think we have the best teachers and the best students, and that we take students that other schools should have. And other schools don’t like that. He feels that if we went the uniform route, we would look even more elitist.”

Sophomore Molly Minta agrees with Fleming, saying that she wouldn’t want a school-uniform policy.

“I feel like because we have had this freedom with how we dress for so long that it would be too big a change to make,” she said. “I have gotten used to going to school and expressing how I feel through how I dress, and taking that away would infringe upon that freedom of expression.”

While Fleming opposes having uniforms, Melia said that he wasn’t necessarily against them.

“On the other hand though, when you think about uniforms, it’s not that bad of an idea,” he said. “You don’t really have to worry about what you’re wearing the next day, it’s easy and there’d be virtually no dress code violations at all because whatever the shorts and shirts were, they’d be appropriate.”

Sophomore Bonnie Rice said she is somewhat ambivalent about uniforms.

“I can see advantages to having them,” she said. “But I would prefer the freedom to wear what I want. I wouldn’t be completely against them, though.”

Melia also explained the type of uniform the dress code committee was considering.

“When they talk about uniforms, they didn’t mean that you’d need to wear something with the West Shore logo on it or anything,” he said. “They were talking about just like, a certain kind of pants or shorts and then maybe a polo shirt. So it wouldn’t have been a strict uniform.”

By Autumn Scheer