HISD principal sets dress code — for parents

A Houston Independent School District high school has a new dress code. But it’s not for students, who already have a school uniform. It’s for their parents.

James Madison High School will turn away parents if they show up at the school wearing bonnets, pajamas, hair rollers or leggings, among other clothing items, according to a memo signed by the school’s new principal, Carlotta Outley Brown. The new parent dress code is posted on the front page of the school’s website.

“Parents, we do value you as a partner in your child’s education,” Outley Brown, herself a graduate of Madison High School, said in the memo. “However, please know we have to have standards, most of all we must have high standards.”

While some said the guidelines were necessary to maintain a dignified atmosphere, others have taken issue, saying the rules codify deeper issues tied to class, gender and race.

“I’m almost insulted,” said Tomiko Miller, the mother of a Madison High School student. “I really think it was discriminatory, the language that was used. It was demeaning. And I’m African American — and if it’s misty outside and I have a hair bonnet on, I don’t see how that’s anyone’s business.”

Zeph Capo, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, called codes relating to women’s hair “classist,” “belittling” and “dismissive.”

“I’m sorry — this principal may have plenty of money and time to go to the hairdresser weekly and have her stuff done,” he said. “Who are you to judge others who may not have the same opportunities that you do? Having a wrap on your head is not offensive. It should not be controversial.”

HISD administrators declined to comment on the mandate, and Outley Brown did not respond to a call seeking comment. District policy allows each school to establish standards for student attire and personal grooming, but no policy addresses the appearance of parents.

The parent dress code was issued the day after KPRC-TV (Channel 2) reported a parent attempting to enroll her daughter at Madison High School had been turned away because of how she was dressed.

The mother, who was wearing a T-shirt dress and headscarf, said the school called police to remove her from the property when she demanded to see the parent dress code she had supposedly broken. Outley Brown’s memo detailing a parent dress code is dated the next day.

DeGeneres’ praise

Outley Brown took over as Madison’s principal midway through the second semester this year, becoming the school’s fourth principal in five years. She replaced Paolo Castagnoli, who lasted just shy of one year on the job.

Outley Brown previously served as principal of Peck Elementary School, southeast of downtown Houston, for about 14 years. She received widespread media attention in 2015 when her campus received $100,000 from Target during alive presentation on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” DeGeneres called Outley Brown an educator who “works seven days a week dedicating her life to students, who are mostly poor or homeless.”

Peck routinely met state academic standards during her tenure, occasionally earning distinctions awarded to schools performing above average compared with campuses with similar student demographics. Peck scored an 80 on last year’s state academic accountability rating system, slightly below the district average of 84.

In a 2008 profile of Peck Elementary following its recognition as a National Blue Ribbon School, one of the country’s highest academic honors, a U.S. Department of Education publication noted Outley Brown’s approach to parent clothing.

“Early in Principal Brown’s tenure, some parents showed up at school in inappropriately informal dress,” the author wrote. “She took these parents in hand and explained that they may not appear at school so dressed and firmly turned them away, as she did any parents using inappropriate language on school grounds.”

Similar push elsewhere

Houston is not the only place wrestling with parent dress codes. In Tennessee, state Rep. Antonio Parkinson and state Sen. Dolores Gresham have sponsored a bill that would require all schools adopt a parent code of conduct, which could include how parents dress.

“I’ve heard from people literally from New York to California to Washington state saying there is a need for this,” Parkinson said. He said one of the school leaders who reached out to him was Outley Brown during her time at Peck Elementary School.

As for concerns that parent dress codes could unfairly target people from certain demographics, Parkinson said, “I’m not speaking about affordable as much as priorities. …What could be a higher priority than bringing your child to school? You wouldn’t go to a date like that.”

Parkinson said he had tabled the bill until next year after a fellow state legislator passed an amendment exempting his school district, citing worries the policy could be an impediment to parent involvement.

Those worries were echoed by some in the Houston community.

“I think the fact that a mother was there checking her child into school — that’s what’s important,” said Kristy Jhaver, the president of the Heights High School Parent Teacher Organization. “What she was wearing was not.”

She worried that the dress code could discourage parents, which in turn could discourage students. “It has a domino effect.” rebecca.schuetz@chron.com jacob.carpenter@chron.com