New York, NY – State Sen. Eric Adams (D-Queens), a former NYPD cop who was raised in South Jamaica, Queens, thinks it’s high time for city students to lift their saggy pants. He is now lobbying Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to adopt a resolution banning sagging pants in classrooms.
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When I was overseas, I noticed people were sagging there. You know, as New York goes, so goes America, and as America goes, so goes the world. We want to be identified globally by our great achievements — hot dogs, Chevrolet, baseball . . . not showing our underwear.
It dawned on me that this dress standard has been around for 30 years. Many children grew up in it. If no one is saying it’s wrong, how do they know it’s wrong?
The communities I represent are ground zero for sagging. Some people may think, What’s the big deal? But it’s more than someone not wearing a belt on their pants. It is symbolic of the erosion of basic, normal decency. People shouldn’t be displaying their pubic hairs. That is not normal, acceptable behavior in young people that we are grooming to be in a professional environment. You can’t dress the same on the corner as you can in corporate America — you’ll be unemployed.
I guarantee you that some idiot will call this a “racist” policy.
With all the entitlements obama is and wants to give why do they need a job
Both my parents are retired public school teachers. When they first started teaching in the 1950s there was respect and decorum in school. Both the students and teachers were required to dress in a respectful manner. My parents tell me that the moment the dress code was done away with and both teachers and students were allowed to dress casually respect for school and learning was drastically diminished. Dress is not the only reason which caused education to be diminished in the public schools but it was a contributing factor. Teachers are supposed to be role models for their students. Imagine female teachers who come to school scantily dressed like prostitutes or male teachers who teach with their shirts half open. What message are they conveying to their students? They diminish the atmosphere of respect for education when they dress the way they do. Sen. Adams is 100% correct and I agree.
This style originated in jails. It signifies that you are the property of another inmate. It’s interesting that this beame a trend.
“When I was overseas, I noticed people were sagging there. You know, as New York goes, so goes America, and as America goes, so goes the world. We want to be identified globally by our great achievements — hot dogs, Chevrolet, baseball . . . not showing our underwear.”
HaShem yerachem! Is this the best your American politicians can do: to campaign on other men’s pants styles?
No wonder American prestige is slipping all over the world.
Rather than worrying about public schools, we should also start thinking about a dress code for our boys in yeshivot. I’ve been to schools where the boys are wearing pants 2 or 3x too large, which are too long and drag on the floor, and sometimes look like they haven’t been dry-cleaned or pressed in months. Their shirts are hanging out over their tallin katans, and their belts are fraying. We should consider uniforms like some of the modernishe yeshivas where the bochurim where near kahaki pants and golf-shirts and look a lot cleaner cut than the yeshivos in the more heimeshe neighborhoods. There is no reason the boys have to look like they are extras from a Grade B movie about life in the alte heim.
These teenagers enjoy shopping the clothing sales at Macy’s —–
“Pants half off.”
Maybe these kids are wearing hand-me-downs or second hands as unfortunately their parents can’t afford more. Being a teacher I’ve seen this with some respectable families too. We can’t judge them BUT we can quietly confide with principle regaling their status and send in some money to help out.
Clothes do make the ma. See Sefer Hachinuch to Parshas Tetzave