Dress Code

Here we are, on the cusp of another NBA season, and what are we talking about? A repeat for the San Antonio Spurs? A new cast in Miami? Larry Brown in New York? No, we're talking dress code. Sport coats. Ixnay on the ing- blay. For one of ESPN's commentators, putting suits on the players is fine, but he wishes this had been decided a while ago. "I would like to have seen this discussed right after the season," studio analyst Greg Anthony said during a conference call yesterday. There should be a buzz about the teams and players right now, he said, and "we don't have that yet."

I agree wholeheartedly with Susan Reimer ("Failing Bobby," Aug. 30) that the situation with the alleged Perry Hall shooter Robert Wayne Gladden Jr. is so sad. Being a nurse and employed in psychiatric care for a number of years, I know we missed the boat on this one. Bobby was trying to let someone know by his actions that he was in trouble. All the bells and whistles were there. I certainly hope now that he can get the proper treatment. My prayers are with both families. It would also help if there some type of policy for uniforms or a standard dress code.

ARMONK, N.Y. -- International Business Machines Corp. will sell its headquarters and shed the buttoned-up corporate image by relaxing its employee dress code, Chairman Louis Gerstner announced yesterday.IBM will replace the building that's been its home for 30 years with a new, more-advanced facility to be built on another part of the company's 450-acre site in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City. The company also will drop its famed, but unofficial, dress code of blue suit and starched white shirt.

Writing about me for a profile in the Christian Science Monitor , Richard O'Mara quoted an unnamed colleague, "He dresses like a floorwalker. " Indeed, Tuesday through Friday, I'm at the paragraph factory in suit and tie. Only on Saturday, when a skeleton staff toils in the the echoing newsroom, do I go casual. The formality is a personal preference, from a lingering sense that a grown-up man ought to dress like a grownup.  There is no dress code for the newsroom; my fellow managers on the news desk, Steve Young and Phil Klinedinst, are determinedly casual.

Dave Wilmouth can take the heat, if he is dressed to beat it.A direct-care worker at Springfield Hospital Center, Mr. Wilmouth is in danger of being suspended for wearing shorts on the job.No central air conditioning cools the McKeldin Building, where Mr. Wilmouth works in one of three wards. The brick structure, which houses about 70 patients, retains heat in the summer, he said. The staff and patients swelter in the halls and hospital rooms. Often, the only relief is outdoors."I took a pocket thermostat to work with me Sunday," said Mr. Wilmouth, 24, of Sykesville.

Nothing in particular pushed Andrea Keefer over the edge. Rather, it was the daily parade of cleavage and bare midriffs, barely there miniskirts and micro-shorts that convinced the former Francis Scott Key High School Student Government Association president and other student leaders in the county that Carroll County's public schools needed a stricter dress code. "Once it gets really hot, people wear everything other than their bathing suits to school," said Keefer, 17, who graduated this month from Key and will start classes this fall at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va. "When you see people wearing things like that to school, you know they're not there to get an education.

The eight-member Anne Arundel County school board unanimously adopted last night a student dress policy that will take effect in August 1997.It is the third get-tough measure concerning school discipline adopted by the board in two years.The new dress code prohibits clothing and accessories that depict obscenities or violence, promote the use or abuse of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, or pose a health or safety risk or disrupt school. The measures will apply to all school events unless excused in advance by the principal.

LONDON - A Muslim orphan who won a two-year legal battle over a school dress code that prevented her from wearing a head-to-toe garment says she has struck a blow against "prejudice and bigotry." In an interview yesterday in the Guardian newspaper a day after her court victory, 16-year-old Shabina Begum said she hoped her case had given "hope and strength to other Muslim women. ... I'm happy that I did this." But some critics fear that permitting more conservative Islamic dress in British schools could put pressure on other Muslim girls to wear the same clothing or risk being branded as not devout.

Several teen fashions will be barred from Anne Arundel schools under a proposal to strengthen the dress code.Crop tops, short shorts and underwear-revealing baggy pants are among the targeted clothing. The school board will review the proposal at its meeting tomorrowand could put it into effect ++ in January.An initial revision of the one-paragraph dress code failed to win board approval in June.The proposed policy would bar clothes and accessories that depict obscenity or violence; promote the use or abuse of tobacco, drugs or alcohol; pose a health or safety risk; or disrupt school.

The ripped jeans in the classroom. The cropped tops. The tight T-shirts.Frankly, they're fed up with all the sloppiness -- among some of their teachers.Saying they want a more professional look in the schools, five neat and proper teen-agers made a pilgrimage to Annapolis yesterday to urge dress standards for teachers.The high schoolers supported a bill before the House Ways and Means Committee that would set dress codes for teachers similar to those for students in some counties."We had a teacher who would wear outfits that were very low-cut," said Michelle McGrath, 16, a junior at Broadneck High School in Anne Arundel County.

The calendar said June, but Scott Garrity's tie screamed Christmas. Thinking it was inappropriate attire for his job as a bailiff at a the Baltimore District Court building on Patapsco Avenue, Garrity sought a way to change. He called his son to bring a replacement to restore decorum in the court. But then he spilled coffee, and he decided to drive home and change. As he returned to work, his car was hit head-on by a truck, sending him to the hospital for a month. He filed a workman's compensation claim with the state.

NFL players love giving Bruce Laird a hard time. They call him a snitch. They call him Inspector Clouseau. They call him Colonel Klink. And those are just the printable names. That's because Laird, the former Baltimore Colts defensive back, is the uniform inspector at every Ravens home game, charged with making sure players from both teams conform to the league's strict – some would say anal-retentive -- dress code.. No socks rolled down.. No skin showing between the socks and pants.

Heather Burt knows that above-the-knee skirts, the flash of a midriff or cleavage, and jeans are no-nos while she is working as a fourth-grade teacher at Meade Heights Elementary School in Anne Arundel County. She has never been warned against wearing these clothes because she understands the unspoken rule. "That is the rule of thumb," Burt said. "You want to look professional My [students] wear uniforms. It is not very professional if you wear jeans if the kids can't. Dressing professionally, the kids take you more seriously.

At the Towson Farmers Market, there was one thing cooler than the cucumbers. That would be Baltimore County insurance agent Ted Hawrylak. What you see is what you get with this 51-year-old Catonsville resident. "My style and my attitude are similar; laid back and casual, easy to get along with." Age: 51 Residence: Catonsville Job : Insurance agent at the Towson New York Life office Self-described style : "Bold yet plain. Conservative, yet edgy." The look : Tommy Bahama lime green shirt.

Watch that team spirit, River Hill. Students have been warned that they will be turned away from athletic events if they decide to substitute body paint for shirts. Principal William Ryan's rule has upset some students at the high school. Ryan clarified last week that body paint is not banned at school sporting events. "You [just] have to have clothes on [when you wear body paint]," Ryan said. "You can paint your body, hair and toenails if you want, but you have to be fully clothed."

Good morning--New York Yankees--It might be time to institute a dress code for the players' wives.

LONDON -- It may be the wedding of the decade, but the forthcoming nuptials between Prince Edward, the queen's youngest son, and Sophie Rhys-Jones, his career-woman fiance, will be decidedly more modest and modern than those of his brothers.In the 1980s, amid much pomp and splendor, Prince Charles and Diana Spencer were wed in London, in lofty St. Paul's Cathedral, and Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah Ferguson, now divorced, married in the traditional royal house of prayer, Westminster Abbey.

When Anne Arundel County's 73,700 students return to public schools this week, they better not have on cut-offs, midriff-bearing shirts, or short shorts.A new dress code that goes into effect today lays down the law on clothes: "Students have the right and responsibility to choose their attire and to arrange their personal appearance in a manner which is healthy, safe, inoffensive and not disruptive to the educational process."Students in appropriate clothing will eat in gaily decorated cafeterias in many elementary schools around the county, greeted by servers trained to be nice.

Yinka Morakinyo, 13, an eighth-grader at Harper's Choice Middle School, normally wears T-shirts and jeans to school. But on Wednesdays, she makes an effort to look special - in part as a taste of the dress code she'll face one day in the working world. "It just makes you feel good," said Yinka, who was wearing a jean skirt and lightweight blue sweater. "You start off with a more positive attitude." That attitude is the goal behind a program called Dress for Success, started six years ago by the school's principal, C. Stephen Wallis.

ISSUE: -- In the wake of increasing complaints from parents and school board members about the prevalence of inappropriately dressed students, Harford County school officials are stepping up enforcement of the dress code. Some students think the dress code is too stringent, but administrators say it's about setting limits on what is appropriate attire for the school environment. Are school officials overreacting with their increased enforcement of the dress code? Uniforms would benefit education I think it's about time Harford schools had a dress code, for the following reasons: 1. School is not about fashion.