Dallas School Board Member trying to ban baggy pants

[Terminator]

DALLAS — A Dallas man has had it with baggy pants that overexpose, so he wants the City Council to look into a ban on wearing the oversized trousers that often slip so low as to show underwear.

Ron Price, a Dallas school board member, has asked the City Council to look at strengthening the law to give citations to those who expose their underwear.

“I think it’s disrespectful, it’s dishonorable and it’s disgusting,” said Price, who made the recommendation last week to the City Council. “I have no problem with the top of your Hanes label being shown. My problem is when grown men walk about the city with pants below their buttocks.”

Council members have asked the city attorney to look into the issue. City Attorney Tom Perkins said this week he’s investigating the legalities and will report back to the council.

But experts say that such a law might not hold up, so to speak.

It would be too vague, said Robert Jarvis, constitutional law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He said that for a criminal law to be constitutional, a person of average intelligence must know what’s being prohibited.

“Who’s to say how baggy pants can be before they’re ’baggy pants,”’ he said. “There’s just no way to regulate these things.”

Some Dallas City Council members are raising concerns about police attention being diverted to fashion instead of crime.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that we are discussing banning baggy pants — we have important crime and public safety issues to be concerned with,” said council member Angela Hunt.

Council member Gary Griffith said he does not favor “taking policemen and women off patrol to track down and chase young people on how they’re dressing. That’s not the right use of our police force.”

Such proposals haven’t made it too far in recent years. In Virginia, the Senate dropped a bill last year the would have fined those with pants so low their underwear was exposed. A similar bill from a Louisiana state representative failed to pass in 2004. And such proposals haven’t faired well at the city level either.

“This is one of those areas where the legal battles have been fought, and we know what the answer is,” Jarvis said.

Lisa Graybill, legal director ACLU of Texas, called such a ban a “distraction.”

“It’s certainly difficult for me to imagine that it would stand up,” she said.

Price said the underwear issue came up after he took some elderly women to dinner and a group of men walked by with their pants so low their underwear was on display

“I just feel that it’s so disrespectful to our senior citizens, especially to women...,” he said.

He said that in the Dallas school district, most schools require students to wear uniforms and students also must wear belts and tuck in their shirts.

“In the city it’s a different deal,” he said. “I’m asking the city to do something about it. If the city decides law enforcement, so be it.”

School districts have a fairly wide discretion to set dress codes, said Naomi Gittins, staff attorney at the National School Boards Association.

For school districts, a dress code rule must be somehow related to the education mission. For instance, a district could show that in their area baggy pants are associated with gang membership and ban such apparel, she said.

Baggy, drooping pants got their fashion start with hip hop music, and then mainstream designers started producing them, said Mary Ruppert, assistant professor of fashion at Stephens College in Columbia, Mo.

A recent trip to a North Dallas mall showed lots of super baggy pants, but they were paired with long T-shirts so no underwear was evident.

Trip Dalrymple, 18, of Dallas, wore extremely loose pants, but his shirt was also very long. He said that if someone’s look includes showing their underwear, it’s just a matter of style, not something that should be banned.

Besides, he said, he wouldn’t want to get fined if his pants slipped.

Kendall Beck, 26, of Dallas, was wearing low pants, but his shirt was also long and tucked in. He said that he agreed with the proposal that people should be fined for showing their underwear.

“You’ve got to be presentable,” he said. Besides, showing underwear with super baggy pants is a look that’s “played out,” he said.

Ruppert, for one, agrees.

She said the current fashion pendulum is swinging heavily in another direction this fall: super skinny pants for both men and women.

“It is a radical jump this season, very thin leggings,” Ruppert said.

[gozling]

eh...
all i know is distribute more of them..
cus when ever anyone runs with them... i get them along with the face plant they made on the sidewalk lol...

[Sgtaircop_one]

We had to take a drunk into custody wearing baggy pants, he was hard to drag with his pants around his knees

[cajunguy]

I think it should be open season for wedgies.

You see 'em "saggin", give 'em a wedgie.

After a couple of real good ones, they'll pull their britches up everytime they see the po-po coming. End of problem.

[TheOldRhino]

I think the poll is kind of skewed. Outside of a school, a child can where anything their parents let them. So if their parents are stupid enough to allow baggy pants, then whatever. However, that freedom shouldn't be extended to anyone under 18. Especially when the sag so low I can see their underwear.

In a school setting, I totall agree on the ban. Why? Because the job market often doesn't allow baggy pants. We should be instilling in these children habits and traits that would help them survive the adult world, and if I was an employer looking at now job prospects, anyone who showed up to an interview with baggy pants will get shown the door. The same for piercings, dreadlocks, facial hair, and the like.

If you grow up and find a job that allows you to sport this kind of look at work, then it's a bonus. But until then, pull up your GD pants.

[timatoe127]

If you grow up and find a job that allows you to sport this kind of look at work, then it's a bonus. But until then, pull up your GD pants.

I have noticed some of the kids working in the local McDonalds wearing there pants this way too. So I guess they've really scored big.

[Jenna]

What is the appeal of baggy pants anyway? Why would anyone, much less active gangster type kids, want to wear pants that keep them from running fast and will fall off if they lose any weight? I wonder who the first kid/gangster was who saw a pair of baggy pants and said "hey, that looks so cool, I'll buy one!"

[TXCharlie]

ABout 3 years ago when I stopped for a red light in Carrollton, I saw this skinny kid wearing size 80 pants running across the road, tripped over his pants and fell flat of his face. It was great entertainment

[Crimebytes2]

I think the poll is kind of skewed. Outside of a school, a child can where anything their parents let them. So if their parents are stupid enough to allow baggy pants, then whatever. However, that freedom shouldn't be extended to anyone under 18. Especially when the sag so low I can see their underwear.

In a school setting, I totall agree on the ban. Why? Because the job market often doesn't allow baggy pants. We should be instilling in these children habits and traits that would help them survive the adult world, and if I was an employer looking at now job prospects, anyone who showed up to an interview with baggy pants will get shown the door. The same for piercings, dreadlocks, facial hair, and the like.

If you grow up and find a job that allows you to sport this kind of look at work, then it's a bonus. But until then, pull up your GD pants.

vBulletin Message
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Centurion44 again. At least I tried, Centurion!

[Piggybank Cop]

vBulletin Message
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Centurion44 again. At least I tried, Centurion!

I gave him one for you.

[Crimebytes2]

I gave him one for you.

Thanks, 1sgkelly! You da man!

[cntryboy0531]

I think they should pull up their damn pants when in school. While school should be fun (within limits) I think it should be kept to at least casual professional levels of dress code. School is meant to prepair you for the real world.. And if you walked into work with your pants hanging down to your knee's, you'd be sent packing.

[TheOldRhino]

Thanks

[NavLaw]

As much as I find the look disgusting. I don't think it should become a legal matter. Two reasons come to mind. When they try to run from you they are easier to catch. Second, think back to your youth, it will all change, always has, always will.