But the response to avant-garde adolescent fashions at Susan B. Anthony Junior High School has led to a simple resolution: they've been outlawed.
"The kinds of conversations you can have on this can go on for an hour or two - First Amendment rights and all this," said Anthony Principal Rachel Leonard. "But there's no way I accept that, I'll accept one thing, that school is a place to learn and not disrupt the educational process. And that's what I've got to consider."
Leonard, in a letter to parents last Friday, said that because of repeated incidents of name-calling and some physical confrontations over fashions at the school this year, "dress that is overly conspicuous or overly distracting will not be accepted." Students could be suspended for violations.
Mentioned specifically in the letter as examples of inappropriate "punk" or "breaker" dress were spiked hair, studded bracelets and belts, exposed underwear, ripped and torn clothing, tattooed or marked skin, gaudy makeup, shower caps, scarves (bandanas) and ear muffs - occasionally worn around an ankle.
"When you're wasting five or 10 minutes of a period trying to get the kids to settle down because somebody dresses outlandishly, that doesn't have anything to do with education," said Ted Strand, a history teacher and co-chair of the Anthony faculty council, which urged several weeks ago that parents be informed of the problem by letter. "It's a tough enough job to do without bringing in any kind of distractions."
Leonard said some of the students miss class time in order to groom themselves. Some, she said, in order to avoid parental criticism, change clothes when they get to school.
'While none of the school's seventh or eighth-graders has been suspended for improper dress, several were sent home to change Monday and Tuesday, she said.
Students at the 900-student school have reacted by circulating petitions asking that they be allowed to wear whatever they please.
Jenny Hewitt, a seventh-grade band member who, while carrying her flute home after school yesterday, was wearing heavy white makeup and a tousled, new-wave hairdo, said, "So what if we want to dress this way? It's the other kids' fault for doing the yelling."
Added Scott Campbell, an eighth-grader dressed in a Sex Pistols T-shirt, a denim jacket and jeans with ripped knees: "In a way, it's the teachers who are prejudiced. If you have hair that's spiked, it's not dangerous."
Minneapolis School District policy says "Clothing that distracts others from the learning task will not be permitted," Leonard said.
Matt Stark, executive director of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union, said the only legally' recognized dress codes are those designed to protect health and safety.
He added that a school must show that a particular student's clothing disrupts a school's educational programs if it is to force him or her to the changing room.
"But others who make noise and disrupt are the ones who ought to be punished," Stark said.
"Kids are always going to find something to express," he added. "They can't vote. They can't buy ads because they don't have any money. All they can do is cut their hair or paint it. They can cut their pants short, or wear them long.
"What's the educational purpose of mandating a dress code?" Stark continued. "We all believe kids should learn how to express themselves."
Don Wagner, co-chair of the faculty council, said the impact of fashion in the school caught many teachers off guard.
"We have what you might call a mature staff," Wagner said. "I guess the issue of clothing hasn't come up in so long, it was kind of a surprise this year when styles began to take this turn. It's a repeat of what was happening 15 years ago."
Ann Spears, president of the Anthony Parent-Teacher-Student Association, said that it will address the new clothing policy at its next meeting, but that she hasn't heard opinions from any parents on the subject yet.
Leonard, meanwhile, said that given another chance she would arrive at the same policy.
"Sure, we're tough," she said. "But I maintain that the public expects that."