Parents Aren't Having School's Ban on All-Black Clothes

Before the school year kicked off last week at Charles Middle School in El Paso, Texas, parents there received an unexpected notice about a newly revamped dress code. What stood out the most: a ban on students wearing all black, with school officials claiming that certain clothing colors can adversely affect mood, per the Dallas Morning News. "We are ... eliminating a look that has taken over on campus with students wearing black tops with black bottoms, which has become more associated with depression and mental health issues and/or criminality than with happy and healthy kids ready to learn," principal Nick DeSantis said in the letter sent to students' caretakers.

Norma De La Rosa, head of the El Paso Teachers Association, told CBS4 last week that students would still be able to wear black, just not "from top to bottom." She claimed that teachers had noticed a marked difference in students' moods on days when they dressed in more colorful clothing, compared with days when they were decked out in all black. Parents of former and current students, however, weren't buying it. "Making students wear a different color isn't going to magically make them a completely different person," one person posted online. "Someone can be wearing vibrant colors ... and have depression," another pointed out, per CBS, while a third noted she was upset about not being informed before she did her back-to-school shopping.

The El Paso Independent School District has heard the backlash and now says that a miscommunication is to blame between the district and the middle school for the dress code hubbub. "The campus initiated a dialogue with the community in April, and after careful consideration, the recommended adjustments were approved at the campus level," the district said in a statement, per the El Paso Times. "Unfortunately, the campus prematurely communicated the dress code change as a final decision rather than a recommendation." De La Rosa tells USA Today that the policy has now been put on hold. "The campus and the district will be reviewing the proposed change and will make sure that the proper procedures are put in place to get feedback from all parties as to possible future changes," she says. (More dress code stories.)