CLEVELAND – The Cleveland teachers union is objecting to a proposed dress code for educators at its 23 worst schools – calling the move “insulting” – despite complaints of flip-flops and beer t-shirts.

District officials unveiled a simple dress code and several other changes for teachers as part of “Corrective Action Plans” for the district’s 23 “Investment Schools,” which have been plagued by academic underperformance, Cleveland.com reports.

“The things we’re asking of our teachers is no different from what happens in other districts,” Cleveland schools chief academic officer, Michelle Pierre-Farid, told the news site.

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“Most of our teachers want to do this,” she said. “Most of our teachers want our kids to improve.”

Apparently, most of the teachers union officials don’t like the changes at all, and rallied members to flood a school board meeting last night to voice their displeasure.

Pierre-Farid said there’s a real need to set a dress code standard for teachers.

“ … (S)he and other administrators regularly see teachers in T-shirts and jeans – not just on school spirit days … and not just shirts with the school name or logo,” Cleveland.com reports. “She said the shirts have been inappropriate, at times, and that she once saw a teacher wearing a shirt with a beer can on it.”

Flip-flops and short skirts have also been a problem. Students must comply with a dress code, Pierre-Farid said, so it only makes sense to require the same of teachers.

“To say that we will dress professionally, as well, is not too much to ask for,” she said.

A dress code for one of the Investment Schools states that teachers should “Model respect and appropriate behavior for students, dress professionally (e.g., no jeans or sweat pants except on designated days) and treat students respectfully and positively,” according to the news site.

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Cleveland Teachers Union President David Quolke believes that putting a dress code in writing is too much to ask for. He believes teacher dress code issues should be handled by principals, rather than policy.

“There are some people, not just teachers, you want to say, ‘Aww, come on, spruce it up a bit.’ But it isn’t a pervasive problem. It’s not something that they can’t figure out on a school by school basis.”

CTU vice president Shari Obrenski called the dress code “insulting,” Cleveland.com reports.

“There are ways to do it with treating adult professionals like adult professionals,” she said.

Obrenski then went on to suggest that a student dress code is also unnecessary because dealing with violations distract from learning time.

“It is not a productive use of my time,” she said of dealing with violators.

CTU officials were hoping to draw 1,500 members to a Tuesday school board meeting in an attempt to pressure district leaders into backing down on their demands. Teachers filled the 900-seat auditorium at Rhodes High School Tuesday and gave board members a piece of their mind about the dress code and other requirements in the CAP plans, Cleveland.com reports.

“Turning in lesson plans, dress codes, and increasing the amount of testing for kids – that is not what increases academic achievement,” CTU VP Tracy Raddich told the board, according to Cleveland.com.

It’s certainly not the first time teachers union officials have objected to efforts to impose a dress code.

Last spring, officials in Kanawha County schools in West Virginia attempted to ban teachers from wearing blue jeans, flip-flops and facial piercings to work, but union officials flipped out.

“It’s very restrictive and total unnecessary,” Fred Albert, the local union president, told The Charleston Daily Mail.

“The only statement that needs to be made is that employees need to dress and behave in a professional manner,” he said. “We don’t need a prescriptive and strict policy.”

In another West Virginia county, Lewis County, union attorney Jeff Blaydes told the media dress code restrictions are “inconsistent with (teachers’) statutory and constitutional rights.”

Albert believes that most teachers “carry themselves professionally,” so there’s really no need for a dress code – essentially the same argument Cleveland union officials are promoting.

But just because most teachers act and dress as professionals doesn’t mean their more casual colleagues shouldn’t be held to the same standard.