Chinese parents frown at the DOE's loosened dress code.

One man's fashion can be another man's offense. This is more so for immigrant parents and their children, thanks to the combination of generational gaps and different cultural backgrounds.  

Sulan Liu knows it. Liu's daughter, Cynthia, immigrated with the family 10 years ago when she was five years old. "Back then, she'd wear whatever I bought her. I dressed her like a little Chinese doll," said Liu. But when her cute doll quickly grew into a teenage girl, Liu started to worry about Cynthia's dress.  

"In the past year, she started to wear these very tight shirts and sometimes the shirt is too short so she exposes her belly button. Sometimes it's her skirt that's too short. When I ask her to not dress that way, she says I am too old fashioned," said Liu.  

Liu did notice that some of Cynthia's friends dress the same way; however, since Liu grew up and was educated in China, the concerned mother questioned why the school doesn't interfere. "In China, the schools have a very strict dress code. You'd get punished, sometimes even suspended from class, for dressing inappropriately or wearing make up. But it seems in New York the schools don't care," said Liu. 

Liu's concern is shared by many Chinese immigrant parents who were educated in China to believe that fancy clothes, makeup and dating can distract a student from her studies. And the last thing they want to see is their children's Ivy League road detoured by the overloaded adolescent self-conscience. Many of these parents think it is the school's responsibility to regulate students' dress code, but they soon found things are different in New York. 

In some ways, today's New York is an unlikely place for tolerance towards inappropriate dress. It is after all a city where a series of stiff dress codes are set by investment bankers, socialites and celebrities, and one mismatching accessory is likely to be a damaging faux pas. It is also a city that has been gaining a reputation as a "nanny state" for its habit of setting rules from dancing to smoking bans to noise restrictions and curbs on trans-fats in food.  

But unlike school districts in neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut, where the campus dress codes are often pages long with prohibitions on everything, from flip flops to sunglasses, and specifics of how tight is too tight and how short is too short, and how much underwear showing is too much, New York City public schools is almost a free zone for any fashion-minded youngster.  

"The only thing we have (regarding students' dress) is not to wear gang colors. That's all," said DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg. When pressed for reasons, Feinberg said: "That is also the parents' responsibility."  

The city hasn't always been as indifferent. There were efforts to mandate uniforms in public schools in the late 1990s but the policy didn't last long amid a lack of wholehearted support from some parents, a reluctance by principals to enforce it and, of course, opposition from the kids themselves. Students got more freedom after the city settled a lawsuit filed by a 15-year-old lesbian student who was suspended for wearing a T-shirt that read "Barbie is a Lesbian," in 2004. They now have the right to wear "political or other types of buttons, badges or armbands," according to the DOE's discipline code.   

It doesn't mean the public schools don't make their own rules. But random conversations with youngsters shopping at chain stores like American Eagle and Forever 21 indicate that these school-level rules often don't have much clout. James Singh, a third year student from High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology said the only restriction he knows is not to wear a hat. But other than that, "it doesn't really matter what you wear," said Singh, a hip-hop fan who was clad in baggy pants with his underwear exposed. "I wear them (the baggy pants) almost everyday. I never get in trouble at school."  

Angela Chin, a second-year student at New Town High School in Queens, said her school has no problem with guys' baggy pants either, but girls don't have as much freedom. "We are not allowed to expose bra straps or wear tank tops, which I think is ridiculous," she said. "We should have the right to wear whatever we want." 

Many students enjoy the almost total absence of a dress code in school. "Adults always think that we know nothing, but we know who we are and what we should wear. If they had to write dress code for us, it would make us look like kids from decades ago," said Jean Lu, a student of M.S. 131, in Chinatown. When asked about the idea of wearing an uniform, Lu seemed perplexed. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

For some parents, the lack of regulation and enforcement from the DOE has put them in a powerless situation to persuade their children to wear what the parents deem as inappropriate.  

"Kids should be focusing on their studies not on their clothes. But we have some parents complaining that their children spent an hour every morning picking out what they are going to wear to school. And some of the styles they like, like the baggy pants or jeans with holes, are just ugly. But when you ask them to change, they'd say everyone in the school dresses that way," said Pauline Chu, president of the Chinese-American Parents' Association and a supporter of uniforms for students. "New York is liberal and sometimes too liberal."  

This article was written as part of an education reporting fellowship granted by New York Community Media Alliance