introduce a school-uniform policy (Clinton, 1996; Donohue, 1996; Uniform improvements, 1999).
The Long Branch policy appears, after several years, to have succeeded. Data reported by the school district indicated hat since uniforms were mandated, overall crime in the school district dropped by 91 percent; additionally, suspensions were own 90 percent, sex offenses declined 96 percent, and vandalism decreased 69 percent (Uniform improvements, 1999). This experience has been replicated elsewhere. Donohue (1996) reported that at Farragut High School in Chicago, a school uniform policy created a 100 percent drop in violence. Accordingly, President Clinton instructed the Department of education to distribute to all of the nation's 15,000 school districts a manual explaining how school uniforms can be useful n reducing campus violence (Donohue, 1996).
In describing this manual, President Clinton (1996) noted hat many American school districts and individual schools including those of Baltimore, Miami, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Nashville, Phoenix and Seattle, have adopted mandatory or voluntary school uniform policies with promising results. Such policies are incorporated into the school's disciplinary code, but many have criticized the initiative as begging the question (Wilkins, 1999). The U.S. Conference of Mayors endorsed he policy in 1998, but Wilkins (1999) has argued that enforcement difficulties, the
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