- December 16, 2025
High school students spoke out for nearly an hour to protest the possibility of outlawing skinny jeans.
Before an auditorium full of students, teachers and staff at the Matanzas High School Pirate Theater Tuesday, Feb. 21, skinny jeans dodged a bullet in the district’s new mandatory uniforms policy.
The uniforms issue resurfaced at the request of School Board member Andy Dance, who asked for an update on the two additional shirt colors chosen by each school. (See “Color options” box on this page.)
But colors were hardly the issue of the morning. Following a discussion about color shades, skinny jeans were momentarily threatened.
Board Chairwoman Sue Dickinson said that she had met a parent recently who liked the uniforms policy but disliked the jeans element. Even more, she wondered whether skinny jeans would be allowed.
They would be, the board decided. “This is a discussion we should have had long ago,” Board member Colleen Conklin said.
Still, for nearly an hour, students took the microphone charged, anxious to exercise their freedoms of speech — one of the few rights they have left in school, some argued.
“Jeans are jeans,” one student said, to raucous applause. “Jeans have nothing at all to do with dress code.”
“You’re not only picking what we’re wearing; you’re picking the size of what we’re wearing,” another said. “Are you going to make me breakfast, too, in the morning?”
Mandatory uniforms are tantamount to telling kids what to write, or what to draw, a third student said. “It’s like saying, ‘Draw the circle. Not anything else. Just the circle.’ ”
“It says in the Constitution that we have freedom of expression,” a fourth said, taking off his sweatshirt to show a plain white tee and jeans. “What’s wrong with this?” he asked the board.
“It’s only a color,” another added. “Every color has a meaning, like a soul.”
By this time, the auditorium had grown noisy with murmurs, applause and giggles.
“I think we can stop the entire argument on this by just saying, ‘No jeans,’” the next student said, and the crowd reacted in gasps and What?!s.
A girl then backed him up, suggesting the code be stricter: “When you think about it, it’s only a few hours of the day. … (Students) will eventually get over it. “
But support was short-lived.
“You all are telling us how to spend our money,” one said. “It’s basically like being in jail, because we have no rights now.”
“The whole idea is to make clothes less revealing and cause less distractions,” another added. “And I just think colors are absolutely irrelevant to that.”
“I know that we seem really forward, but it’s because this is a really big issue for us,” one of the last students said. “It’s a really big deal. … At home, our parents are always there, watching us, and we have to act a certain way. But in school, we’re free, in a way. We’re allowed to be ourselves. … Sometimes, what (we) wear is (our) only way of expressing (ourselves). … I just ask you try at least to understand what we go through, what it really means to us.”
Another said: “What if we all just come to school the first day in our normal clothes? Are you all just going to suspend us all?”
The crowd rumbled in ohs and ahs.
Matanzas Principal Chris Pryor spoke last, and he addressed his student body.
“It has been uncomfortable for me, sitting and listening to my students. However, I got over it,” he said.
“(You’re) here because (you) get to see what government is like, and how government is run. … But remember that when you speak to people who have power … they will listen to you better if you are respectful. But I’m proud of those of you who came up here.”
He also noted that many of the students who spoke were seniors, and would be unaffected by next year’s policy.
“The choice is yours on how you present yourself,” he said.
Next, the board will identify uniforms “measurables,” Dance added, keystones to mark whether or not the policy has been successful on Flagler campuses.
COLOR OPTIONS
Bunnell Elementary
blue and green
Belle Terre Elementary
royal blue and powder blue
Old Kings Elementary
royal blue and pink
Phoenix Academy
green; second color pending
Rymfire Elementary
burgundy and beige
Wadsworth Elementary
blue and red
Buddy Taylor Middle
blue and green
Indian Trails Middle
maroon and gold
Flagler Palm Coast High
dark green; second color pending
Matanzas High
royal blue; second color pending
White, black and gray are also allowable everywhere, as permissible district colors.
