St. Cloud Schools Allowing Hats in New Dress Code Revision

ST. CLOUD -- Students in the St. Cloud Area School District might soon be allowed to wear hats while attending class.

At Wednesday night's meeting, the school board began revising the existing Student Dress and Appearance policy.

Students previously have been allowed to wear hats and head coverings only due to medical and religious reasons. However, a recent survey of staff members found that asking students to remove their hoods and hats has become more difficult following COVID-related distance learning.

Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Laurie Putnam says the district does not believe allowing students to wear hats will obstruct the learning process.

We took a look at the policy and compared that expectation of no headwear with enhancing the education of students and found that they didn't really line up any longer. Our students' education was not impacted, or their ability to access their education was not negatively impacted by a head covering.

As with all other clothing, hats are not allowed to have obscene, violent, or offensive language or images printed on them.

Under the policy, administration can also make exceptions where hats would not be allowed at certain events such as prom or graduation.

The revised policy will likely pass unhindered as part of the consent agenda portion of an upcoming board meeting.