Saturday roundtable discussion about the proposed

1 percent special local option sales tax to raise

$90 million for new schools veered into smaller

but emotional issues - like untucked shirts

and baggy pants.

Participants

focused on security and the proposed changes in

dress code. A brief clip from a training film

produced by a state public safety agency showed a

teenaged boy dressed in slighty baggy jeans and

t-shirt packing 16 weapons on his person,

including a shotgun concealed in the leg of his

jeans. The latest dress code proposals for all

Fayette County students calls for non-baggy pants

with shirts tucked into the waist, which will be

belted if belt loops are provided.

three-week grace period will be given when school

begins Aug. 16, with the rules to be enforced

starting Sept. 7. Book bags and backpacks can be

carried to and from school, but must be stored in

lockers during class time. While these

recommendations have yet to be acted upon by the

Board of Education, safety task force coordinator

Stuart Bennett, former principal of McIntosh High

School and now assistant superintendent for

curriculum and instruction, said, "It's

where we're headed based on

recommendations."

"Why

should a kindergartner tuck his shirt in? We're

going to make offenders out of a lot of really

good kids," said Janet Smola of the Joseph

Sams School.

The

initial security proposal for elementary, middle

and high schools totaling $1.7 million has

already been revised, after parents voiced their

opposition to metal detectors in the elementary

schools, and administrators were faced having

someone man the detectors. Instead, the 30

proposed VCR cameras have been replaced with 30

high resolution digital cameras, and the metal

detectors have given way to 25 walkie-talkies and

two hand-held metal detectors for the elementary

schools.

The

middle school proposal includes 45 digital

cameras, 30 walkie-talkies and four hand-held

metal detectors and each high school would have

60 digital cameras and 35 walkie-talkies, four

hand-held metal detectors and five portable

walk-through metal detectors. The total cost

remains the same.

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