Grooming Unit Organizes

Seventeen adults and students of the 25-member Dress and G r o o m i n g Committee, charged with reviewing the [grooming policies for secondary students in the Arm Arbor Public Schools, met last night at the schools' Administrative Offices for their first organizational meeting. The committee presently consists of 20 regular members, four alternates and the chairman, Prof. William J. Pierce of the University Law School. It was unanimously agreed to ask Ronald R. Edmonds, human relations director for the Ann Arbor Public Schools, to join the committee as the community's, Negro representative. The Board of Education will be asked to approve this addition at its meeting tonight. The Dress and Groomiug Committee is the result of dissatisfaction of a number of students and parents with the dress and grooming policies. The suspension of three high school male students three weeks a go for violating these policies by wearing hair which flowed over their collars resulted in a threatened student walkout and a protest by two dozen parents at a Board of Education meeting. The committee has three specific charges: (1) "To view current dress and grooming policies in effect in the secondary schools in this and other communities"; (2) "To receive testimony from pupils and community representatives concerning their views on matters of dress and grooming"; and (3) "To develop a recdmmended policy statement for the boards consideration." Elected vice-chairmen of the committee last night were Paul Parravano, president of the Huron High Student Council, and Donald Speyer, president of the Pioneer High Parent-Teacher Organization. The committee decided to meet regularly from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.- usually each Tuesday and Thursday - for the next several weeks. The next meeting, however, will he held at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the meeting room of the Ann Ariior Public Library. All meetings will be open to the public until the community hearings are concluded. The sessions will then be closed for the committee's final deliberations. A number of persons will be invited to testify at the first few hearings. These include Ann Arbor Board of Eduction members, School Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr., Pioneer High Principal Theodore R. Rokicki, H u r o n High Principal Paul Meyers, members of the high school Grievance Committee which studied the "long hair" dispute; Harold Collins, president of the Ann Arbor Education Association, and a local representative of the American Civil JLiberties Union. Following this testimony, students, parents, teachers and citizens will be allowed to give their opinions on the dress and grooming issues. Pierce asked Supt. Westerman to prepare copies of the present dress and grooming regulations for Monday's session. Westerman said he had also written a number of other school districts asking for their grooming policies. Robert Cooper, president of the Pioneer High Student Council, said last night the whole issue "boils down to whether the school rules are going to be humanized." Another member of the committee said the dress and grooming policies per se are not the problem. What is at issue, she said, is whether "we are going to have rules to govern the students" or whether the students will have total freedom. Pierce asked his committee to "please . . . (have) as open a mind as possible" on the entire subject. The committee is composed of the president or designee of each secondary school parentteacher organization; the president of each secondary school student council; a staff representative of e a c h secondary school; two secondary principáis, one junior high and one senior high, and the chairman. The members are: Forsythe Junior High: Charles Fisher, Student Council president; Harriet Halpern, faculty representative ; William Rude, principal; and Neal D. Collins, PTO president. Tappan Junior High: David Cowan, Student Council president; Thomas Noonan, faculty representative; and James G. Perkins, PTO president. Scarlett Junior High: Kim Wong, Student Council president; James Patt, faculty representative; and Mrs. Charles Presley, PTO representative. Slauson Junior High: Guy Crawford, Student Council president; Edmund Palmer, facultyi representative; ánd Dr. and Mrs. C. E. Gingles, PTO vice presidents. Pioneer High: Robert Cooper, Student Council president; Allen Schreiber, faculty representative; Walter Gillett (altérnate); Donald Speyer, PTO president; and Dr. Lee Jones (altérnate). Hurón High: Paul Parravano, Student Council president; Paul Meyers, principal; Theodore R. Rokicki (altérnate); James Love, faculty representative; Desmond Ryan (altérnate); and James Ford, PTO vice president ______