Are students crossing the line, or just toeing it?
Flip-flops, fashion rage and bane of school principals, kick up controversy
Principal Peter Cohen never expected such a flap over flip-flops.
It started last month when Cohen suggested that the middle school students at Stony Brook School in Westford wear something other than open-toed sandals in the classrooms.
The reaction among parents -- not to mention 13-year-old fashionistas -- was a firestorm that included rumors of detention for scofflaws, forcing Cohen to e-mail an assurance that flip-flops were not banned, just strongly discouraged.
"We realized we had to clarify the message," said Cohen, who is in his first year as principal, "that the message was all about safety, and it wasn't about detention for flip-flops."
Westford is one of the latest communities to try to stanch a surging fashion tide. Some districts have decided to clamp down. At North Reading Middle School, flip-flops were outlawed last year, and students at Stoneham Middle School have gone without flip-flops for three years. The footwear was deemed unsafe at North Reading and inappropriate at Stoneham.
"We ask the students to come to school dressed for learning," said Stoneham Middle School principal Christine McMenimen. "For some people, it's an issue of hygiene and safety, and for other people, including myself, it's about coming to school looking like you're ready to do work."
McMenimen said that she issued a warning in early February to two seventh-grade girls who wore flip-flips to a school dance.
Regardless of the social venue, the same dress codes apply, McMenimen said. "I gave them a warning and said, 'When the warm weather comes, don't be on my list.' "
The "list" starts with a warning, escalates to a sneaker swap in gym class, and peaks with a call to parents for a change in footwear.
The attitude of parents is another issue. A generation of parents who grew up during the '70s called them "thongs," which one dictionary defines as "a shoe or slipper fastened to the foot chiefly by a strip of leather or other material passing between the first and second toes."
These days, "thong" has a decidedly different meaning in the world of fashion, and the sandal gets its current name from the sound it makes when flopping against a foot in motion.
A few decades ago, flip-flops were considered beachwear. But a tectonic shift took place about four years ago.
"It changed because it became all right to transition from the beach to the workplace or school," said Ellen Goldstein, chairwoman of the accessories department at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. "Footwear News did an article about whether it's OK to wear flip-flops to the office, and the consensus was it's OK."
Michael Atmore, editorial director of the Footwear Group, a Condé Nast publication, said, "Let's face it, a lot of them are designer-level" products.
"Just about everybody is making them, from Prada Sport to Christian Louboutin to Jimmy Choo."
A pair of Manolo Blahniks runs $515 at Neiman Marcus. Swarovski makes flip-flops adorned with rhinestones for brides. Sigerson Morrison makes them in almost every shape imaginable. The sandals come with wedged heels, kitten heels, flat, and even platform heels, in leather, rubber, vinyl, and canvas.
There are flip-flop fly swatters, coasters, candles, and swizzle sticks.
Country singer Kenney Chesney's Flip Flop Summer Tour is scheduled for July in Foxborough. Singer and songwriter Jimmy Buffett built a cult following around the laid-back culture of "Margaritaville," a hit song from 1977 that contains the line, "I blew out my flip-flop, stepped on a pop top."
Atmore noted that the current middle-school generation wouldn't recognize Buffett's name, but that many of today's parents, who were approaching their teens 30 years ago, would.
"That's where a lot of parents are in a predicament," he said, "because they've participated in the casualization of America, wearing sweat pants and athletic shoes. It's hard to turn around and tell their kids to dress up."
So, while some parents flipped over Stony Brook's position, Cohen said, others thanked him for helping them in the daily confrontations with their middle-school daughters over their wardrobes.
"I don't think they're appropriate for anywhere but the beach," said Louise Waldron-Carter, the parent of a girl in the eighth grade at Stony Brook. "That goes for everyone, not just middle-schoolers."
But peer pressure is far more powerful than parental disapproval, Goldstein said.
Colleen DeAngelo, a Stony Brook seventh-grader, said she watches the school's eighth-grade girls for her fashion direction, which typically involves Abercrombie jeans and American Eagle tops and accessories. And what did she have on her feet one 40-degree school day this month? "I really love flip-flops," said the owner of five pairs, including a pair of cheetah prints by Bongo.
In Massachusetts, many school committees are reluctant to get too specific with dress codes because, in 1994, the state Supreme Judicial Court interpreted a 1974 statute as giving students wide latitude for their dress styles as an expression of free speech.
For that reason, the dress codes of many school districts are vague, and some close their eyes to the pajama pants and tank tops of today. But not so in Stoneham, though Superintendent Joseph J. Connelly apparently is aware of the risks.
"We could always be challenged," he said. "We've tried to come up with reasonable dress guidelines, and the flip-flops clearly are in there because of the safety issues. . . . We stand ready to justify it, if need be."
Cohen's reasons for discouraging flip-flops echo the concerns of other educators, who note the possible dangers of tripping on crowded stairwells, hot substances spilling on unprotected feet in cooking classes, and the threats of injuries in gym classes.
North Reading Middle School principal Richard C. Hodges put the whole thing in perspective. "There are times when kids will challenge the line in the sand," he said. "We're not trying to declare war. We're just trying to keep kids safe."
Should schools prohibit students from wearing flip-flops? Readers can share their thoughts on boston.com/northwesttalk.
Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com. 