Villa Rica High School’s Media Center echoed with the voices of about 200 visitors Monday night as Principal Dennis Brown prepared to explain and defend his proposed dress code policy for students to a group of resistant parents and students in the first of three scheduled town hall meetings.

Brown proposed the dress code to improve the image of the school, which he said has been tarnished by bad publicity brought on by a few incidents that do not represent the majority of students in the school. The students are highly competitive in the class room and are achieving, but people don’t see it, he said.

“Ten little girls getting in a fight over a little boy got airtime,” Brown said. “That’s not Villa Rica High School. ...The perception, that’s the only thing we got to fix, folks.”

So, he proposed the students leave their jeans and pajama pants at home and dress appropriately for their time at school. Under the proposed dress code, which is still being revised, the students would be required to wear khaki or black pants, skirts or capris with a collared-shirt, such as a polo, or a tailored shirt. The shirts could be any color, stripe or plaid. Boys also would be allowed to wear shorts. The students could wear sweaters or sweatshirts in a solid color with a logo no larger than a quarter. On Fridays, students would be allowed to wear jeans with spirit wear in the school colors.

Any student not adhering to the dress code would be sent home to put on appropriate clothing.

Brown invited the public to attend the meetings to have a chance to answer their questions and explain exactly what the dress code would require. He also requested parents help in enforcing the dress code.

“This is a community school,” Brown said. “It’s not my school. It’s the community’s school.”

Brown asked for public input, and he got it – lots of it.

Parents and students lined up along both walls waiting for their chance to ask questions or give their opinions of the new dress code.

Greg Clark, the parent of two children in Villa Rica schools, addressed what was on a lot of parents’ minds – the cost.

“There’s a lot of parents out here who cannot afford – and I know a lot of people in my community that’s out of work – that’s not going to be able to afford to go buy clothes,” Clark said. “So, what’s going to happen to the people who cannot afford to buy these clothes?”

System administrators had checked with the local stores about the cost of the required clothing and found shirts and pants starting at $8. Brown also mentioned the idea of a school store that would provide the required clothing at cost for the students who could not afford to buy it at the stores.

“I don’t want any of my kids to suffer and I would never embarrass one of my children,” Brown said. “These are my kids, too.”

A number of other parents questioned the administrators’ ability to enforce such a rigid dress code.

“I agree to a certain extent with your policy,” said Villa Rica resident Julie Collins. “But the problem I see now is that you can’t enforce the dress code that was already here.”

Her comments were met with loud applause. However, Brown countered that the school spends a great deal of time enforcing the current dress code, and that’s one reason he is enlisting parents in the enforcement of the proposed dress code. Sending kids home is detrimental to their education in the long run.

“Limiting what they can wear will make it easier to enforce,” Brown said. “My goal is to keep kids in instructional [classroom time] as much as possible. That’s where the rubber meets the road is in instruction in the classroom.”

Students also showed up to voice their opinions. The clothes don’t make the student, they said, imploring school officials to let their achievements speak for themselves.

“I am in Beta Club, debate team, Quiz Bowl, marching band, and I’m at the state level for Governor’s Honors nominated and you’re telling me that if I put on a pair of khakis that I’ll do better, that it’s just my pants that are holding me back?” said 10th-grader Thomas Hannah.

The reason for proposing the dress code was so the public as well as the students could focus on academics instead of appearances, Brown said.

“If everybody in the school achieved at the level you achieve, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he said, in addressing Hannah’s question.

Some people agreed with the efforts of the school administrators to make the students dress up. They called on the other parents to help.

“It all starts with respect,” said Melinda Huckeba. “We don’t want a dress code for our children. We’re saying it’s too expensive. Let’s be parents. ...If I got to give up a dinner, if I got to give up a pack of cigarettes, if I got to give up that beer I like to drink, I want to do it if it’s for my child.”

Villa Rica Mayor J. Collins, a 1995 graduate of the high school, was concerned about how the reputation of the school has been on a downhill slide since he graduated. He also called on parents to work together to create the kind of learning environment they want to see at the school. Surveying the audience, many clad in jeans, he noted that it wasn’t surprising they didn’t agree with banning jeans from the school.

“The suit doesn’t make the man, I understand that,” Collins said. “Let’s pull together and come up with a solution.”