At its July 14 meeting the Vidor Independent School District board heard a staff presentation on planned student handbook updates, including a recommendation to remove gender-based restrictions on earrings and to continue requiring visible student tattoos to be covered.

District administrator Mr. McDowell (presenting) told trustees that a summer survey of peer districts found most have no gender rule on earrings; currently the district allows earrings for secondary students regardless of gender but prohibits earrings for elementary boys. “Our recommendation is going to be that we move forward, just removing gender from the earring policy and the dress code,” Mr. McDowell said, adding the recommendation will appear in the model handbook brought by TASB at a future meeting.

Trustees and community members voiced differing views during the presentation. Trustee Mr. McPaine called the change “not appropriate” in his view and framed it as a personal preference; district leadership noted a legal concern that differential rules by age and gender could invite discrimination claims. On tattoos, staff recommended continuing the current practice of requiring tattoos to be covered and said partial-size exceptions create enforcement gray areas that become a “daily battle” for campus administrators.

The board did not vote on the handbook changes on July 14. Staff said the model handbook from TASB will be shared and the proposed earring language will be presented for board review at a forthcoming meeting.