Beginning this school year, the St. Paul’s School student body has a second, formal uniform to be worn on special occasions, which includes a new school tie, white dress shirt, brown belt, long khaki pants, and dress shoes. The uniform will introduce a new way to display the many young men at the school with a broad presence.
“Many clubs have to dress the same way on occasion already. For example, the foreign arts club and many kids in athletics are required to dress up for special events,” said Assistant Principal Trevor Watkins.
While the idea is to represent the school and its students as mature, young men, the administration wanted the uniform itself to be very fair in terms of cost.“We tried to give leeway with the new uniforms by not asking for much from our students that they don’t already own or that they won’t have to wear every day,” said Watkins. The tie sold at Uniforms by Bayou sells for $15 and serves as the main piece in the change of uniform. The rest of the uniform includes items most students already have in their closets.
The administration and faculty will be vigilant about keeping the students up to code on adherence of the new policy. “Our number one concern is that students don’t abuse the new uniforms–such as wearing a dirtied white shirt, a non-brown belt, tennis shoes, or whatever the case may be,” added Watkins.
The students themselves have mixed opinions concerning the newest set of guidelines they now have to follow. One junior noted, “It seems tedious to have to remember when to dress up. It’s a new set of rules that we can mistakenly break or forget and get in trouble for.”
However, some students like the idea of being able to play dress up for a day. “I don’t think it’s that bad. It’ll be nice to dress fancy,” said junior Jonah Knickles.
The new idea was sparked last summer by the administration, but took an additional year to put into place. Although intended for school Masses, students were not required to wear the formal uniform to the school’s first Mass, held in the gym on Aug. 15 due to the heat in the gym during this time of year.
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