What’s afoot here - school related

[Anonymous]

One of my sons once attended a local all-boys private HS with a dress code.

Apparently it’s longstanding that on Fridays you can donate $5 in homeroom to be able to somewhat dress down. (Sweatshirt, sneakers instead of dress shoes, collared shirt in a different color etc.)

In many homerooms there’s often one kid whose dad, for example, is the mayor or who owns a car dealership or similar who has directed him to pay for every kid in the classroom.

So .. I checked my old email today to look for something. And at the top is a letter just got circulated where they are now discouraging this because it’s making students turn on one another as “show offs” and in at least one classroom, a student paid for only half the class and not another half, declining to list which half was which, but I got the idea that this could be regularly occurring over home rooms over the years.

I’m somehow still getting the emails because my email is still one they have, while my kids’ emails have long since changed from the school address and they aren’t getting these “updates”

the money is all supposed to go to “charity” but since it’s ultimately funneled up to be a charity from the “school” and not the parents, even if it’s a good charity (food bank) … am I hitting all the right notes? Did your kids private schools do stuff like this?

[Anonymous]

This sounds like a feral environment. I would very much like to hear what else is going on.

We never had anything like this at our Catholic private- everyone got a free dress say or no one did. At most an entire grade occasionally got a free dress day just for them because a parent bought it in the auction or they “won” something like a food drive or diaper drive.

Catholic parochial schools did food drives for monthly free-dress days and kids were allowed to bring extra items so everyone could be covered but that’s the closest I’ve heard to this.

[Anonymous]

No, free dress days were never tied to donation or scattered amongst a class. It was always an entire grade or the whole school

[Anonymous]

Gross

[Anonymous]

Yuck! Tacky behavior. Good luck though.

[Anonymous]

Never heard of this. They can obviously just disallow paying for anything other than yourself only.

[Anonymous]

Who cares? Get yourself off the mailing list and find something better to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Our student government does this. $1 to dress down. $ for charity. They also have many many bake sales at school.

Zero issue with it. I think some casual days are also designated that are “free.”

It taught my younger son to finally read emails and not rely on older brother who graduated to let him know when they were. He showed up in full dress while everyone else was in sweats a few times.

[Anonymous]

A Catholic school I worked at did this but the donation was $1 I think and it all went to Catholic charities. And there were never any shenanigans that I was aware of.

[Anonymous]

I went to school in England and wore a uniform.It wasnt every Friday but throughout the year they did let us wear our own clothes of we paid around 1 pound ( $less than $2) that went to a specific charity. We all loved it.
My kid is at a private now with a uniform and I have suggested it but I guess they didn't like the idea because it never happened.