The school dress record: a code sued over, a code kept

AUDIT ROW #264 · JOHN GLENN HANDBOOKS AND THE 2004 TRIBUNE RECORD

Walkerton's school dress record has a courtroom in it. In September 2004, students at John Glenn High School wore T-shirts bearing the name of the punk band Good Charlotte to school and were called out under the corporation's dress code, which prohibited clothing, jewelry, and tattoos depicting drugs, alcohol, profanity, violence, weapons, sex, sexual innuendo, gangs, and Satanism — or portraying music groups that promote such things. The students sued the school corporation, claiming the code was vague and that students should be able to wear clothing reflecting personal and artistic views that does not disrupt the educational process. The dispute settled, with the principal stating the dress code would be adjusted in a way both sides believed fair — the South Bend Tribune's account of the settlement is the record this article rests on, printed at press strength. The code itself was kept, and is kept: the John Glenn High School Student Handbook for 2026–2027, adopted by the Board of Education on April 27, 2026, carries "Student Dress and Appearance" as standing policy (pages 56–57 of the handbook), so the corporation's line runs unbroken from the contested code of 2004 to the current book. The checklist's second school, St. Patrick's, is tested separately and honestly: the parish school stands at 801 Tyler Street in the town's register record, but its uniform policy does not stand in any record this seat reached, and the school's own handbook is the named settler for the uniform limb. One transition is printed here because this section touches the school board's book: the board that adopted the 2026–2027 handbook is the board as seated in April 2026; the Lincoln Township seat on that board changes with the new board year, Carissa Smith having won the seat on November 3, 2026 (1,602 votes to Dennis Metz Jr.'s 1,084) and taking it as a transition, not as a seated holder before her term begins — the correct form, against the inconsistent printings the audit flagged as DF-W-16, whose conform is assembly's.

Principal sources: South Bend Tribune, 2004 (the Good Charlotte dress-code suit and settlement; ProQuest newspaper record); John Glenn High School Student Handbook 2026–2027 (John Glenn School Corporation, adopted April 27, 2026 — "Student Dress and Appearance," pp. 56–57); St. Patrick limb — St. Patrick School handbook.