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The administration of Godfrey Stewart High School in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland is maintaining its student dress code and says it will work with parents to have their children comply.
On Monday, some parents joined their children to protest against the dress code after they were deemed to be in violation of the uniform rule.
The school says no student was barred from entering the compound on Tuesday morning.
Chairman of Godfrey Stewart High School Neville Wilson told Radio Jamaica News that the uniform policy was mainly instituted to protect female students and make them less vulnerable to "being violated" by predators, especially while on public transport.
Mr. Wilson contended that the image of the school has significantly improved with the rules implemented in recent years. Where it had in earlier days been viewed as a ground for "gang warfare", he said the institution now benefits from greater discipline and the resolve of parents who "are willing to follow the rules and work with their children in getting an education".
The school chairman asserted that if the institution is run without rules, it will result in "more challenges in Westmoreland for the security forces", who are already struggling to keep the parish's crime rate in check.
Sessions to be held
Mr. Wilson insisted that parents were engaged in May this year about the uniform policy.
He said some parents on Monday expressed a willingness to adjust the students' uniform or purchase new ones.
According to Mr. Wilson, a meeting was held with representatives of the Ministry of Education's Region Four, and it was agreed that sessions will be held with students and their parents to encourage them to conform.
The sessions will involve the school's guidance unit, but the chairman noted that if additional help is needed, it will look to its partners from Restorative Justice.
He said these students who will participate will be offered a free uniform.
Mr. Wilson noted that some students were wearing the incorrect uniforms on Monday as they had not yet received the new ones purchased through the Parent Teachers' Association.
Lack of compliance
Linvern Wright, President of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), has said parents should ensure their children comply with agreed dress codes until a formal code is issued by the Ministry of Education.
But he believes Monday's protest at Godfrey Stewart High School regarding dress code highlights a bigger issue of lack of compliance with general rules among the Jamaican population, where even "when we agree what laws are, there are people who are in defiance of it".
In the wider context, he suggested this plays out with people blaming the police whenever they try to enforce laws.
Some parents complicit
Jamaica Teachers' Association President La Sonja Harrison has expressed concern about the number of parents being complicit in their children breaking school rules.
"They come to school and they literally do not tell to truth to support their children and to uphold their truancy and just their tardiness concerning whatever their responsibility is; and we're having a serious problem where that is concerned," she complained.
She also suggested these issues lead to greater levels of indiscipline in the society.
Ms Harrison was speaking Tuesday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106.
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