Uniforms

        In general, most schools perform better with uniforms rather than regular clothing. Schools that have their students all wear the exact same clothes have experienced less bullying and fighting, since the clothes people wear are a big source of teasing and bullying if they're different or weirder than that of the bullies. Uniforms also make students feel more welcome or part of something bigger (like how army uniforms make you feel like not an idividual, but a part of a greater cause to further the protection of the American people). But I don't really see the need for them in Portola. I'd like to think that our school is better off than a school in, say, East Los Angeles. We live in a somewhat rich area where a good amount of students are middle class. We're not in the middle of "the hood" where there's gangs on every street, and the majority of our major behaviorial issues are due to smaller things, like disrespect for yourself, your teachers and other students. There's not necessarily any big bullying problems or gang fights that happen here (I know this as a TA for the dean, where I get to hear a lot of problems and kids getting in trouble. There's very few occurances of bullying or big fights). So having uniforms wouldn't really do anything to reduce bullying, since there would be nothing to reduce in the first place. And our school is pretty united enough where we don't all have to have a special type of clothing to feel like one unit. Admittedly, it would cut down on dress code problems, but that's irrelevant.