EVERETT — Mariner High School students who want to wear professional sports team colors better stick to those used by Seattle’s home teams.
A new addition to the school’s dress code bans students from wearing non-Seattle pro sports gear. The ban is an attempt to keep students from wearing the colors of professional sports teams associated with gangs, said Andy Muntz, Mukilteo School District spokesman.
The high school is at 200 120th St. SW, located in unincorporated south Everett. Over the past few months, the community has had an increase in gang activity, Muntz said.
The change follows a recommendation from an anti-gang task force that the high school is involved with. College and university gear are still allowed.
Students and parents were informed of the change initially in a welcome back letter from the school and then in a follow-up in a letter from Brent Kline, the school’s principal.
“Mainly it’s to make sure our school is safe and not full of distractions,” Kline said Tuesday. “Think about why we’re doing this,” he said. “It’s to make sure we keep it a safe place. And we have.”
Kline said the ban is in response to what’s happening outside the school. “Drive down Fourth Avenue,” he said. “There is tagging that’s been there for two years.”
Kline’s letter says the goal of the policy is to keep gang activity out of the school.
Gangs typically pick a team from outside the area as a way to identify themselves, Muntz said. It doesn’t make them unique if they pick the Seahawks. So they choose to wear the sports gear of other teams, such as the Oakland Raiders, the Chicago Bulls or any number of other professional teams.
Muntz said there has been scant reaction from parents. Kline said he’s been contacted by a few, but “they understand why we’re doing what we did,” he said.
There’s no plan to include any of the district’s other schools in the sports clothing ban, Muntz said.
Pat Slack, commander of the Snohomish Regional Drug &Gang Task Force, said he thinks the school is trying to be as responsible as it can.
“Once you say you can’t wear this kind of clothing, I think there will be somebody who will push back,” he said. “At least the school is drawing the line. I’ve got to applaud them for that. Their overall goal is to make it safe.”
Lt. James Duffy works for the Everett Police Department in special investigations, including those involving gangs. He said he’s heard of schools in other parts of the country with similar bans, specifically on hats and colors that identify someone as a gang member.
“I think anything we can do to make keep kids from readily identifying themselves as gang members is beneficial,” he said.
Duffy said that when clothing is worn identifying someone as a gang member, “guys don’t even need to know each other, when they see each other in the hallway or the parking lots, it causes tension when they cross paths. We know that it leads to violence.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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