Should Lincoln Elementary students wear uniforms?

A Brunswick County school is trying to sharpen its image. Next week, the Brunswick County school board will talk about whether Lincoln students should wear uniforms.

“With me in the morning, I have to get dressed, eat breakfast, then have to go to school, but it takes a while to pick out clothes,” said fourth grader Christina Gabrielle Johnson.

Sounds like a lot of work, but that’s not why Lincoln Elementary wants their students to wear uniforms; they’re trying to boost the school’s image.

“Pride about going to school, and being at a school dressed in uniforms, and looking neat and ready for the day,” said Manie Brown, the Lincoln PTA president.

Lincoln is one of the most diverse campuses in Brunswick County with a large population of minority and disadvantaged students.

School officials hope uniforms will help create an equal playing field by not singling students out, for not having the means to buy the latest fashion trends.

“The children would not feel intimated or lack, because they are not wearing the same type shirt or hoodie that another child is wearing,” Brown said. “They won’t go home asking mom about Hannah Montana, or the shirts the boys wear with the Spiderman ones with the lights on them.”

In a preliminary poll by the school board, 73 percent of parents think uniforms are a good idea. They said uniforms are cost effective and would eliminate the morning outfit struggle.

The students on the other hand…”They don’t really want to wear them, because they think they look weird and stuff, but I think after they see them, they’ll probably change their minds,” Christina hypothesized.

Parents are welcome to attend the school board meeting next Tuesday to ask any questions about the uniform policy.