School Dress Codes

Children not allowed to wear clothes with a bit of blood on them

March 2015

Hello, Hive Mind. I hope you can give me a reality check. I got a call from my daughter's elementary school asking that I bring her a clean pair of pants because she had blood on the pants she wore to school and was not permitted to be in school with blood on her clothing. They assured me she was not actively bleeding but rather had scratched a cut that bled a bit. I was able to comply (ask yourselves whether you would be able to come down to kids school with new pants in the course of a regular work/school day). Feel silly that I did so without first asking myself sensible questions. When I got to school (asking as I drove how much blood they could possibly be talking about) she was in the office with a spot about the size of a nickel on her pant leg. I asked whether this was school policy or district policy, and was given a vague answer. This seems insane to me. I wonder whether anyone has ever heard something like this. Makes no sense to me that an elementary school, where I assume kids have small cuts and scrapes frequently, would have such a policy. I am now following up with the district and county public health office, FYI, not Berkeley school district. Any thoughts?
Bloody baffled

In these days of blood-borne diseases, I can understand the school's policy on this. HOWEVER, I work at a school, and we have a large supply of extra clothing for all ages, from underwear & socks, to coats and everything in between. Our school might ask a child to change into a clean pair of pants, but would not call a parent to bring new clothes. We'd deal with it. BUSD employee

I work from home and am about a 3 minute bike ride from my kids' school, and I would still be PISSED if they called me to bring pants just because they had a little blood. I think it is ridiculous!

One of my kids gets frequent bloody noses and they have a cache of shirts in the office that he (or anyone) can change into. They give him a clean shirt when the front of his shirt is literally covered in blood (my sense is that they don't want to freak out other kids) but he's come home with blood splatter on his clothes (bloody noses or re-opened cuts); certainly much more than a spot the size of a nickel.

My kids often wear pants that are dark and/or fleecy so how would the office know if there is blood? I assume there often is just from the fact that they come home weekly with skinned knees, etc.

Could it be that your school knows of someone with a blood disorder and the way to force that kid not to wear clothes with blood is to have everyone change? Could you encourage your school to have clothes in the office for kids to change into if necessary? I'm guessing a lot of people have hand-me-downs that they would be happy to give to your school. Anon

This is stupid and I would be mad. It's one thing to have a rule about "no bloody clothing" (and I can't really imagine why a school would decide they need to have a rule about this) but to insist parents bring clothing replacements for a nickel-sized spot of blood? That's ridiculous. Do you think they are freaking out because it might be menstrual blood? How humiliating for your child. I would be very worried about other stupid rules coming from this school administration!