Shorts for Students in St. Martin Parish, Apology for a Parent?

The regular school board meeting for St. Martin Parish Schools happens tonight at 5 p.m. While the agenda has multiple items the one item hundreds of parents might be interested in is under the category "Board Member's Requests".

School Board Member Mike Clay has the following item up for a request for discussion at tonight's meeting:

"Consider and/or approve allowing all students in St. Martin Parish Schools to wear shorts, effective immediately." This has been a hot topic among parents this year even before the start of school.

The policy for uniforms in St. Martin Parish lets students in sixth grade and below wear shorts to school, but that is not available to students in the upper grades. With temperatures higher than 100 for weeks, and heat indices higher, parents have been asking for a change.

At last month's meeting, one parent, Candice Mire, was able to speak before school board members to talk to them about possibly allowing students in grades 7 through 12 to wear shorts. She had several hundred parents agreeing with her.

She gave a short presentation to the school board last month. While she was discussing her thoughts with the board, a few of the members tried to explain to Mire that other surrounding school districts do not allow the upper grades to wear shorts.  These board members were wrong. The Lafayette Parish School System does allow students to wear shorts.

It will be interesting to see what happens tonight. Mire will be in attendance at tonight's meeting. We did suggest in our last story covering this issue that those members who were wrong about the other school districts apologize to Mire. One member, Richard Potier called her "booboo". We will see if they apologize to her this evening.

Vice-President of the Board, Mark Hebert was one of the members who told Mire she was wrong, and Mire says there were likely two others, but it was hard to tell as board members were speaking over one another.

There is nothing wrong with making a mistake. I know because I make them all the time. I also choose to apologize when I make a mistake. I have made mistakes in writing stories, and I have made mistakes "on-air". I still apologize. We are human.