By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
Students in the San Felipe Del Rio CISD will get to wear hoodies this coming school year, but there’s a catch.
Monday night the district’s board of trustees approved the San Felipe Del Rio CISD’s Code of Conduct for the 2022-23 school year. Included in the code of conduct is an updated student handbook that initially barred the use of hoodies while on school grounds by students as part of the handbook’s “dress and grooming” guidelines.
However, students will still be allowed to wear hoodies on campus, but they will not be permitted to wear the hooded portion.
Board vice president Diana Gonzales approved the motion to approve the changes with Josh Overfelt seconding the motion. It was unanimously approved. Board member Rebekah L. Chavez did not attend Monday’s meeting.
According to the revised student handbook, among the new items of clothing prohibited on campuses are dusters, overcoats, hoodies and trench coats. Many of those items have been tied to school shootings in the past, especially in the wake of the Columbine High School mass shooting in Colorado in April 1999, but the district did not cite a reason publicly for barring those particular items of clothing.
Overfelt was the only board member to question the inclusion of hoodies in the code of conduct as an article of clothing that was prohibited for students.
“I get dusters, overcoats and trench coats. When we say ‘hoodies,’ are we talking what I imagine as a hoodie – the pullover with the pouch for the hands and the … ?” Overfelt asked, making a motion to simulate the hooded portion of the clothing that gives it its name.
Overfelt added that students in the district’s various athletic programs are often issued hoodies during the season and asked if those, too, would be barred under the changes in the handbook.
Sandra Hernandez, San Felipe Del Rio CISD administrative director, explained that clothing as it pertains to athletics or specific academic areas, such as steel-toed boots used by students in the Career Technology Education’s welding program, would be permitted in certain circumstances. They cited school-related activities through CTE, UIL, the Student Guidance and Learning Center and spirit days as examples of where students could be allowed to wear clothing that would be otherwise not allowed by the student handbook as long as it met the proper requirements and only in certain situations as authorized by the campus principal.
“So that would mean that athletes can wear their hoodies but general population can’t? So If I wanted to wear my Baylor hoodie … too bad, so sad, you’re not in athletics or anything like that?” Overfelt asked.
“Yes,” Hernandez replied.
“I’m going with ‘not cool’ on that. I know other districts are doing that and stuff but … I know some of the rooms get really cold at the high school,” Overfelt continued.
San Felipe Del Rio CISD Superintendent Dr. Carlos Rios said that the sweatshirt portion of the hoodie was not the issue, but the actual hood portion itself. Without going into too much elaboration, Rios explained, “We can’t allow students to walk the hallways covered up with the head part of it.”
Overfelt asked if that part could be explained to students – that hoodies would be allowed but the hooded portion could not be worn.
“If that’s made clear to them … they can wear the hoodies but they can’t be all suspicious …” Overfelt said.
Rios said students could continue to wear hoodies, and Hernandez said a note could be added to that particular section to explain and provide guidance on the issue.
The 2021-22 student handbook featured 15 different guidelines for students in regards to dress and grooming and detailed everything from specific styles of clothes that were prohibited to guidelines on a variety of things from hairstyles to headwear and sunglasses and tattoos as well.
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