Uniform Rule Unravels at Santa Clarita School

SANTA CLARITA —  Somewhere out there, somone--and you know who you are--is sporting the bottom halves of the school uniforms that were supposed to have adorned the La Mesa Junior High School student body.

But it has been nearly a month now since the black, white and teal uniforms were hijacked from their delivery truck--and that’s only one of the reasons the Santa Clarita school has been forced to put its new mandatory uniform policy on indefinite hold.

The decision, announced two weeks into the school year, was greeted with disappointment from parents--and naked glee by most of their kids.

“It’s great, because (the uniforms) are stupid,” said seventh-grader Nick Dunkle, 13, who attended school Wednesday in a decidedly less official ensemble--an Orlando Magic T-shirt and olive green shorts.

But the adults were less pleased.

“I have to say morale has dropped, enthusiasm for the program has dropped because of the delay,” said La Mesa Principal Rochelle Neal, one of the main proponents of the uniform program.

“I expected some initial hurdles, but I did not expect this kind of delay.”

La Mesa was supposed to begin the year as the first and only school in the William S. Hart Union High School District to have a mandatory uniform program.

But a series of snafus--ranging from the hijacking to computer and other problems--has delayed delivery from the vendor, Sunland-based Cherokee, Inc.

Mike Singer, president of Cherokee’s uniform division, said the robbery occurred Aug. 29 when three men hijacked a truck containing about 9,000 uniforms for various schools, including La Mesa, as it was leaving a sewing factory in Montebello. The hijackers forced the driver to lie on the floor of the truck and blindfolded him, releasing him in Long Beach after taking his money and the truck.

“The truck’s been recovered, but none of the uniforms were recovered,” Singer said.

Meanwhile, other problems have plagued the uniform company, including processing breakdowns that caused further delivery delays. Singer also acknowledged that the firm is considering restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but he added that any decision on that was weeks away and would not affect uniform deliveries to La Mesa.

As a result of these problems, only a handful of the 500 students enrolled at the new school have received their uniforms--which have been already paid for. Some others have gotten just a shirt, skirt, pair of slacks or some other part of an outfit. The cost of the uniforms--which include several sets of clothes--is about $100 to $150 a year per student.

Singer said the company has been supplying institutions with uniforms since the early 1980s, but that this is its first year in the school uniform business.

“We’ve gotten off to a rocky start with this uniform thing,” Singer said, “but I believe ultimately kids will have their uniforms and parents will be happy.”

He said he will be attending a meeting of La Mesa’s parent advisory committee tonight to explain his company’s position.

But although Singer expects Cherokee to have worked out its shipping problems and have the uniforms delivered to La Mesa next week, district officials and parents were skeptical.

“I felt they should have managed it better,” Sukhinder Rana said. “We paid the money, and they told us the uniforms were ready. I’ve been calling (Cherokee) every day.”

Meanwhile, the number of uniformed students at La Mesa has dwindled steadily. Even on the first day of school, only about a third of the students wore the prescribed attire.

On Wednesday, only a handful of students were wearing them--mostly because ther parents made them.