The Hoodie Policy

School policies have been a recurring issue each and every new school year with kids not following rules, and so on. But one school policy that reoccurs and is constantly a problem is the Hoodie Policy. Each and every school semester students here at Neuwirth bring their hoodies to school - some you can say are stylish, others look like pure trash, but regardless, the students enjoy wearing their hoodies to school… until they get taken away. 

Sometimes it does make sense to take hoodies away if they are displaying a negative message towards other students, but there are other instances where students showing off a positive message receive the same punishment. But why? Why do we have this policy? Why is it such a big problem? Is there a way to negotiate the hoodie problem? What can our student representatives do? As we interview Neuwirth’s Staff and Student Representatives, the answers to these questions present themselves.

Mr Ayala, former Arc lead Staff, and currently part of the Dean’s team here at Alliance Patti and Peter Neuwirth Leadership Academy has probably talked to you and taken hoodies away from many students. I have been one of those students before when Mr Ayala has told me to take off my hoodie, and maybe you who are currently reading this have had the same experience. When interviewing Mr Ayala he gave great points on some of the questions I had to ask as he stated “First off, there are multiple reasons why we had the Hoodie Policy here at Neuwirth. Having the hoodie on is a problem, because we are here to get you college-ready. Teachers thrive when scholars are retrieving the information they are presenting. When students are in class with hoodies on and Airpods in their ears and they are not paying attention, and it interferes with the goal of teachers getting these scholars to get college ready. 

Mr. Alaya added.” Furthermore, the colors that students bring to school has to do with the area that we are in. Neuwirth is  located near the heart of South Central, and South Central is filled with gang infested communities that just so happen to be repping colors, and because they repping colors, we don't want our students to attract any unwanted attention from these gangs.” 

Lastly, “We know kids want to express themselves with their clothing, they want to look fresh, and we understand that, but wearing hoodies that have nothing to do with college or with Neuwirth makes it harder for the security to identify in the morning who is a student and who is a total stranger. Especially coming back from quarantine a couple of years ago when students were coming to school with a mask and a hoodie. We want things to run smoothly here at Neuwirth, and that's why the Hoodie Policy is taken so seriously and strictly by the Dean’s Team and by the other staff who have taken hoodies away in the past.”

We also talked with someone who everyone knows, everyone's favorite (and if he isn’t your favorite you got some rethinking to do) Mr. Winchell. Mr Winchell is of course the 11th grade APUSH teacher but he’s also the Director of Instruction here at Neuwirth. When Interviewing Mr. Winchell about the Hoodie Policy he made some great points about the hoodie policy. Winchell stated “ The hoodie policy doesn't affect me while teaching to a large extent. However, I see and understand the need for a uniform policy to keep uniformity and consistency in school. Without uniformity, it sort of creates a gray area, which then leads students to interpretation which might be applied to different scholars differently. The hoodie policy is like the equal protection clause of 14th Amendment in the United States Constitution…laws exist to apply to everyone equally, otherwise the law can be contorted to individual use and interpretation. It's just to keep uniformity throughout the whole school.” 

Last of all, we also asked two student representatives. Even though they aren't school staff, Charlie Mejia, the ASB (Associated Student Body) president, and Christian Gonzalez, student representative of SSAC (School Site Advisory Council), both represent the students of Neuwirth and their desires. When we interviewed Charlie Mejia, he had some mixed emotions about the hoodie policy. Mejia believed that the hoodie policy was irrational, as it did not allow students a manner of expressing themselves, but he also believed the school hoodie policy was necessary. He pointed out that “The hoodie policy is also necessary [so] that students don't offend others or put out a bad message, such as drug usage or gang related representations''. Mejia also stated that “The problem about hoodies is that there's not much variety to even choose from in school, with the only one being the gray sweatshirt. The good news is that ASB is working on making some new hoodie designs so that we as students can have a choice for our hoodies''. 

SSAC students representative Chistian Gonzalaez had similar words with Mejia about the Hoodie policy. He too expressed a lack of happiness with the policy, but as Charlie stated, "It's necessary [so] that students don't offend others or put out a bad message...” However, Gonzalez did state that he would bring up the Hoodie Policy during the SSAC meetings to try and create a compromise with other S.S.A.C representatives.

This article wouldn't be complete if we didn’t ask a student for their own opinion on the matter. The chosen student will be kept anonymous for safety reasons, so we’ll just call him Brandon Marques. Brandon Marques (the anonymous student) had some words to say about the hoodie policy: “The hoodie policy is weird, some students get their hoodie taken away and others don’t. It doesn’t seem fair at all. There are even times where I'm at after school and some staff tell me to take off my hoodie. It doesn't show anything offensive, it just shows the Champion logo. It doesn't seem fair when other students who can have death symbols or skeletons on their hoodie sometimes get to keep them, but I wear a solid color hoodie with a small logo and get it taken away. College hoodies are expensive and the school only sells the same sweatshirt year after year. It’s far cheaper just to use my hoodie than to buy either a college hoodie, or buy one of the school sweatshirts, which doesn't look that good in my opinion.” Of course, this is merely one student's opinion but perhaps most students could agree and connect with Brandon’s statement. Not many students nowadays wear the sweatshirt with just a handful that can be seen in a day wearing them, But what can we take away from this?

Will changes ever come? Mejia has stated that the hoodies A.S.B are working on are still in process, but should be released sometime next year in January when the school year starts. In the meantime students can still buy a sweatshirt from the school or at the school website. Students could even buy a college hoodie on their own with their own money, but it should be known that with the Boxer Points that students have been collecting all throughout the semester. It is possible to purchase a college hoodie with one thousand boxer points, you would just have to purchase it on Dean's List, and choose your own college hoodie from the R.T.C.. Despite efforts from Christian Gonazalez in the S.S.A.C meetings, and Charlie Mejia in A.S.B.,  chances are the Hoodie Policy is here to stay for good, forever.