Hats to get trial run at school

The La Conner School Board on Monday embraced an idea put forth by Heather Henricksen and her sister Nicole.

Students at La Conner High School will be allowed to wear hats at school on a trial basis when they return from their winter break next month.

Hats will be allowed on campus through February 15. After that, depending on the results of research Henricksen will conduct during the trial period, the board will decide whether to permanently repeal the schools’ 30-year hat ban.

“Very well presented,” School Board President Rick Thompson told the Henricksen girls. “I really like the idea of a trial run.”

He said that, as an “old guy,” he is reluctant to approve hats at school but said, as his board colleagues have pointed out, times have changed.

Henricksen and the school’s leadership class approached the board last month with a request to ease the ban on hats, which are now hot fashion items as well as cold weather necessities.

The students proposed that hats be allowed at school provided they are respectable, don’t cover the students’ eyes, and that the teachers have discretion on whether hats can be worn in their individual classrooms.

The hat ban has been in effect since the 1980s and came about to discourage insulting apparel and gang attire — both of which would violate the “respectable” criteria in the new hat proposal.

Henricksen said during the trial period, she will work with school staff to document every case in which hats create a discipline problem, and she will present her findings to the board at its February meeting.

Board member Kate Szurek said that for comparison, she would like Henricksen’s study to also document the number of discipline referrals made during this school year prior to the start of the hat study.

The students and several teachers have said the ban on hats has led to unnecessary negative interactions with students when their hats are confiscated until the end of the school year.

Most of the teachers the students polled last month said they favor easing the ban on hats.