Over the summer, students and their parents received an email regarding uniform changes for the upcoming school year. Now that school has been in session for almost a full month, these changes are visibly in effect.
Dean of Students Christina Presberry said, “We didn’t change the uniform for the upperclassmen; basically, it is the same uniform with a slight change for the freshmen.”
This change is most evident in the winter uniform.
In place of the pullover or crew neck, freshman girls will now wear a button-down shirt with a sweater or sweater vest during the winter.
In addition to the change in the winter uniform, freshmen are only allowed to wear black polos with the JC mitre.
Students learn about school policies in Patriot Pathways, a two-year course that meets once every cycle during a student’s freshman and sophomore years and touches on dress code-related topics.
Ms. Presberry said, “In Patriot Pathways, we talk about dressing for success, and one of the ways that we dress for success is that we look professional.”
At the beginning of the last school year, there was talk of changing the uniform.
Instead of changing the uniform in the middle of the school year, they decided to wait to phase in a new uniform for this year’s freshman class and reinforce the old uniform for upperclassmen.
Ms. Presberry said, “Last year, we had a bit of a problem with the skirts being short and the uniforms looking tattered and torn. So, this year, the administrative team and the deans decided that we were going to reinforce the current uniform that we have in place for the upperclassmen.”
The only major change for upperclassmen is the girl’s winter uniform. Leggings or tights are now required to be worn under the skirts during the winter.
Another change focuses on the polos. Only black undershirts should be worn under the black polos for students of all grades.
Upperclassmen still have the option to wear the white and yellow polos. Undershirts worn with white or yellow polo shirts must be white. In addition, undershirts should not be visible at the bottom of the polo or beyond the sleeves.
They also changed the policies on non-uniform bottoms being worn into the building. This includes pajama pants and sweatpants.
Ms. Presberry said, “We formed a focus group last year which consisted of SGA, staff, students, and parents to talk about the uniforms…we were getting complaints from the outside public because everybody knows what the John Carroll uniform looks like. We want to be professional. That’s what it’s all about being a Patriot.”
Uniform violations are punishable by detention. On September 5, the dean’s office gave warnings to students who arrived at school who did not meet uniform requirements.
Now, the warning phase has completed, and detentions have been issued for uniform violations.
Emails were sent out through the summer updates about the new uniform changes, in addition to meetings with all the students to reiterate the dress code policies in order to get “the uniforms back to where they should be,” said Ms. Presberry.