Texas High School Tossed 170 Students out for Dress Code Violations, like school spirit shirts and Denim.

Can you imagine your boss suspending you from work and sending you home for not wearing a belt, or wearing the company logo on you shirt or jacket? Well, that's the supposed "real world" lesson one principal is trying to teach his students at a Texas high school during prep time for exams. Bad administrator? You bet.

What I really loved about his story is how the reporter wryly set up and explained the event. I hope I'm detecting a new way of featuring local news that conveys just the right amount of skepticism. Great stuff:

Texas high school sends 170 students home for violating the dress code: Duncanville High School Principal Andre Smith emphasized to WFAA ABC 8, "We enforce dress code every day … No day is a good day to send students home. We want students in the classroom.”  …. However, many of the students disagree with that statement saying that there are very few times that the dress code is enforced and the timing of this sweep couldn't have been worse. The crackdown occurred right before the school’s scheduled final exams, which caused many students to miss critical reviews in classes." "Our school cares more about our dress code than our own education. There's literally no kids in my class right now," a student named Victoria wrote on Twitter.

Some of the items listed in the Duncanville Independent School District’s dress code policy include a requirement that students wear belts, shirts free of logos and designs, and it prohibits denim. Edward Ramirez, a junior with a 3.5 GPA said he had never been written up before the dress code sweep. He told KDFW, “The staff told me that my shirt was out of dress code despite the fact that it is a school spirit shirt.”

Despite what some students were calling a ‘near-riot,’ Principal Andre Smith told WFAA, “We didn't lose control.” The KDFW helicopter camera captured a “heavy police presence” outside the school around 1 p.m. Things had apparently gotten out of control and administrators decided to call in the authorities to regain order, but no arrests were reported.

Duncanville High School’s dress code enforcement also made the news in 2003 when more than 700 students were suspended over the course of two months for violating the school policy.