- December 14, 2025
About 50 residents voiced their opinions on uniforms Nov. 15, at the Flagler Auditorium.
From exposed bra straps to poor sanitation, from freedom of expression to high costs and disruptions in education, parents and students expressed their views about uniforms Nov. 15, to the Flagler County School Board, but, as Chairwoman Sue Dickinson said, “The final decision will be made by this board.”
About 50 people stepped to the microphone at the Flagler Auditorium. What follows is a sampling of their statements:
Bess Wall, a teacher at Flagler Palm Coast High School, said: “For years, I’ve wrestled with this idea, because many of the students at the high school come with inappropriate attire, with bra straps showing, and their breasts falling out. … They sit in their underwear on their seats, and then other students touch that. I think it’s a sanitary issue.”
Lindsay Brendel, FPC’s junior class president, was one of several students who presented petitions of their peers who opposed uniforms. She said a uniform policy would result in “punishing a majority of students for the actions of a few.”
Marcus Polite, a 10th-grader at FPC, said that, rather than mandatory uniforms, the schools should enforce the dress codes already in place. Students who violate the dress code should be swiftly punished, he said.
Parent Paula Gentry opposed uniforms because of her daughter’s disabilities. She said such a policy might solve the problems caused by the 10% of the students who violate the dress code, “but you’ll take another 10% and make it harder on them.”
Sierra Higgins, a sixth-grader at Belle Terre Elementary School, said uniforms would take away students’ freedom of expression. Students don’t want to wear boring colors, she said. They want to wear the full rainbow.
However, she admitted, “It would be cute to see kindergartners in uniforms.”
Sean Bronsema is a junior at Matanzas High School. He suggested that if the School Board did feel compelled to mandate uniforms, it should be phased in with the youngest students first.
Zakiyyah Nelson, a nurse at Wadsworth Elementary School, is in favor of uniforms. She said she has had to take care of students who were disciplined for breaking the dress code. One student sat in her office for two hours before a parent came to drop off a new set of clothes.
“(Uniforms) eliminate the extra paperwork for teachers to worry about,” she said.
She suggested that if uniforms are implemented, the schools could have an occasional dress-down day.
Parent Stephen McClellan spent eight years wearing uniforms in the U.S. Air Force, and he said it was always obvious among the airmen who took pride in the uniforms and who didn’t, and the same would be true in the schools. Moreover, he said, the School Board should provide the community with statistics to prove the success of uniforms in other cities.
Brenda Hernandez, an eighth-grader at Buddy Taylor Middle, said she used to wear uniforms in a school in Miami, and that experience leads her to favor a uniform policy. “My school in Miami had way less bullying than the school I’m going to now,” she said.
Lauren Dunlap, an eighth-grader at Buddy Taylor Middle School, said uniforms wouldn’t reduce distractions for students. “If the boys are focused on the girls, they’re still going to be focused on them,” she said. “We’re still going to have the faces.”
John Winston, president of the African-American Mentor Program, said he has been calling for uniforms for years and that research shows they are successful.
“Where they’ve been employed, especially in urban-rural communities, grades have gone up,” he said.
He added: “Your individuality will not change from 3 p.m. to when you go to bed. But when you go to school, you’re there for one purpose: education, education, education. It’s not a style show.”
WHAT'S NEXT?
The next forum will be 6-7:30 p.m. Dec. 7, at a location to be determined. The School Board wants to host at least one school administrator, and possibly a full panel from other counties, to discuss school uniforms. The board will make its final vote Jan. 3.
