Uniform shortage

Janel Paredes, Staff Reporter/Photographer

Green and yellow, logo on the side, polo collar should be visible while your bottom must be khaki pants. That is our UACHS school uniform. Most students wear uniforms, however, the majority wish they were a thing of the past.

Uniforms come into play for many reasons. For some people, they are important,

to others, they find ways to bend the rules to their liking. 

According to “Pro and Cons: School Uniforms,” on the website Encyclopedia Britannica, “When schools make uniforms a requirement, they usually want to decrease the amount of bullying for their kid’s safety and many schools also like the idea of preparing kids for their future attire in any career they may choose.”

 However, the uniform can’t play its part in ‘anti-bullying’ if students can’t wear it. A handful or more of the students couldn’t get a tangible set ready for the first official day of school. There have been many complaints and worried students wondering if there are repercussions. Uniform orders are out of our control and the distributor outlet is at fault. Amy Espin, UACHS senior, has spoken out and feels the problem should be fixed. 

“It feels out of my control, and they should do a better job at distributing the uniform,” said Espin. “We students should be focused on school, but instead are worried and uncomfortable about when our uniforms will arrive.” 

Susan Chenelle, UACHS administrator, has information on why the uniform issue is different this year. 

 “We kept calling for an update on the pop-up shop that had come last year, but they were short-staffed and didn’t respond for a while,” said Chenelle. 

Since the store didn’t respond, in order to make the students aware, Mrs. Chenelle posted an announcement on the school’s website. 

“We do have quite a few uniforms for students to rent if they don’t have one, or if it didn’t come in time.” said Chenelle, “If you don’t have the fee accessible, it will just get added to your lunch/book account that has to be paid at the end of the year.”

Uniform information is not just available online, you can also find it in the student handbook. As per the handbook, “a student is capable of renting a uniform for $2 per day. The school will let you keep the uniform if you’ve paid the fee for several days.” 

While that is a solution to the issue, students should still have a set of uniforms that is theirs, not one that is borrowed or provided by the school.

As the school year progresses, students sit and wait for the uniforms to arrive at some point. For now, we can only hope that the uniform outlet will work hand in hand with the school and resolve the uniform shortage.