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Parents and students urge Falmouth committee to keep DESE dress‑code protection in policy
Summary
During public comment, multiple residents and students urged the committee not to remove DESE model language from policy JICA, citing student rights, Chapter 71 Section 83 and requests for additional legal and stakeholder review.
At the Oct. 25 Falmouth School Committee meeting, several students and parents used the public‑comment period to urge the committee against removing state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) language from policy JICA, which addresses student dress and appearance.
Why it matters: Commenters said the DESE wording protects student and family rights and cited Massachusetts law, Chapter 71 Section 83, as the legal baseline for student dress and appearance. They asked the committee to delay any final action until an unbiased legal review, a stakeholder survey, and a clear town vote on the statutory interpretation are completed.
Megan Zottoli, who identified herself as a resident, invoked the DESE wording directly and framed it as a civil‑liberties safeguard: “That DESE language is not a filler. It is protective, a safeguard for student rights and civil liberties,” she said. She urged the committee not to remove the line that places responsibility for student dress with students and their parents.
Other students joined the appeal. River Zadalea Hearn told the committee she and her friends believe parents and students should decide dress: “I believe that students should have the right to wear what they choose to wear.” Zoe Burns, a Falmouth High School sophomore who said she previously worked on the Lawrence School warrant committee, said the dress code did not determine her academic performance: “My outfit does not define my success.”
Matthew Gomes, who said he served 21 years in the U.S. Army and wears a uniform, argued against imposing a uniform on students while staff remain free to express themselves. He cited Chapter 71, Section 83 and urged the committee to keep the language that places dress responsibility with families unless a school can show a health, safety or cleanliness reason to restrict it.
The public‑comment period also drew other concerns unrelated to dress code, including calls for more attention to safety and requests for greater access to parent Schoology accounts. The committee chair said a separate agenda item — a first read of the public‑comment policy and of JICA — will go to the policy subcommittee for review.
Ending: Speakers asked the committee to delay changing JICA until the policy subcommittee provides an unbiased legal review and until the committee completes the promised stakeholder survey. Committee members did not vote on JICA at the meeting; the item remains on the policy subcommittee’s agenda.
