New London ― When the New London Board of Education first approved a uniform policy years ago, member Elaine Maynard-Adams wasn’t buying the arguments for the update.

“I opposed it then and my feelings haven’t changed,” said Maynard-Adams, now the school board president. “The feedback we got from kids and staff was the policy was not very culturally sensitive.”

In June, the board approved a sweeping new dress code that formally scraps a uniform policy requiring students to arrive at school wearing dress tops, bottoms and other strictly-approved garb.

The updated code states students should have the “right to dress comfortably and express themselves in school through a selection of clothing hairstyles, jewelry and accessories that represent and affirm their identities.”

“This is part of our goal of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion,” Maynard-Adams said. “The idea behind the old uniform policy was that it would somehow de-emphasize class differences. But kids wearing their brother’s hand-me-down polo can recognize a classmate with a Tommy Hilfiger shirt.”

Uniforms had been required periodically at the city’s public elementary and middle schools since the late 1990s. As of 2016, students at the schools were required to wear light blue, navy blue or white blouses and shirts and no jeans were allowed.

That policy was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and was not reinstated.

An ad hoc uniform policy committee in March unanimously approved a raft of policy updates later approved by the full board. Committee and school board member Danni Cruz said the group heard from a variety of stakeholders, including parents, staff and students, as they sifted “word-by-word” through the old policy and code.

“This is a conversation that began when I was elected to fill a vacancy on the board in 2021, the idea of enhancing and updating our code to better reflect our student population,” Cruz said. “We heard from our district’s assistant director of mental health on how these kinds of policies can directly impact the lives of students and staff.”

The modified code imposes no restrictions on “dress or adornment” that might interfere with a student’s civil or free speech rights, though garments that reference or promote drugs, alcohol, tobacco or violence are prohibited.

“We were looking for a balance between promoting inclusivity and student safety, Cruz said.

The four-page updated dress code eliminates several paragraphs from a former uniform policy that listed dozens of examples of prohibited clothing, from jeans with holes and baseball caps to yoga pants.

Maynard-Adams said, under the old policy, many parents were forced to rotate one or two uniforms for a full week.

“We had heard anecdotally about kids having problems coming to school because they lacked the necessary uniforms,” she said. “We had spare uniforms in nurse’s offices, but at the end of the day, this was an idea whose time had come and gone.”

j.penney@theday.com