A Montreal mother is speaking out against unclear expectations about where to buy uniforms at public schools, after her teenage son was reprimanded for not wearing pants bought from a specific supplier.
Karine Daraiche’s son attends École Louis-Riel, a high school in the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough.
His school uniform includes black pants, which he wears to class. But because his pants were not bought from the school’s official supplier, staff told him he might not be allowed to enter the school, Daraiche said.
For three years, Daraiche had been going back and forth between the administration, teachers and supervisors to “stop threatening him with detention because he doesn’t have the right pants.”
“He’s not wearing jogging pants but chic pants in the right colour,” Daraiche said, noting that teens grow quickly and her son is being punished because she doesn’t “have that money to spend on clothes that aren’t mandatory.”
“If you start the year and you have to buy new and you don’t want to do laundry every two days, you’re looking at about $500,” she added.
In Quebec, public schools are allowed to implement a dress code and uniform but cannot impose a supplier, according to Article 11 of the provincial Regulations respecting free instructional material and certain financial contributions that may be required, adopted in 2018.
The Education Ministry says a dress code is part of the rules of conduct approved by a school’s governing board and must be communicated to parents at the beginning of the school year.
“Since items related to clothing, including uniforms, are part of the student’s personal material, the school cannot impose a particular supplier or brand for the purchase of uniforms,” Education Ministry spokesperson Bryan St-Louis said in an email Friday.
But schools are allowed to mandate the style or colour of clothes that make up the uniform, St-Louis said.
Over 20 uniform-related complaints
Daraiche complained about the situation to the administration of her son’s school, which acknowledged he was within his rights.
She then filed a complaint with the Education Ministry. And she’s not the only parent to do that.
The Education Ministry confirmed it received 22 official complaints pertaining to uniforms since 2019.
After Daraiche received an email from the ministry explaining that the school is not allowed to impose a uniform supplier, she printed a copy of the message for her son to carry in case he is questioned again.
A spokesperson for the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM) said in an email sent Friday that Daraiche’s case was raised in June and has since been resolved.
Besides purchasing uniforms from an official supplier, parents may buy second-hand uniforms from their child’s school or another location as long as the clothes comply with the code of conduct, the spokesperson added.
From new pencils, to books, to uniforms, parents are asked to put quite a bit in their kids’ bags at the beginning of the school year. But in Quebec, not all of those items need to be paid for by parents.