EVERETT, Wash. – Officials at Mariner High School in Everett, Washington banned student apparel depicting professional sports teams this year over fears local gangs use team colors to identify their members.

Parents of Mariner High School students contacted My Everett News to complain about the school’s recent ban on professional sports team apparel. The new rule prohibits students from wearing any professional sports team clothing, with the exception of Seattle teams.

The policy, implemented at only one of the area’s high schools, apparently caused confusion among students about what’s permitted and what’s not, which prompted school officials to issue a letter to clarify.

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“We have had some inquiries regarding the recent changes to our dress code communicated to the Mariner community in our welcome back letter.  Specific concern was the banning of non-Seattle professional sports team apparel.  I would like to provide you the cause of this change,” principal Brent Kline wrote, according to the news site.

“Over the past months there has been an increase in gang activity in our Mariner community.  We are vigilant about keeping this specific behavior out of our school.  We have been successful in the past due to continuing coordination with the Everett area gang task force.  Our ever-changing dress code is in response to the on-going learning that we acquire from our partnership with the task force.

“We made the decision to ban professional sports team apparel as we have learned that gangs are using it as a way to identify themselves.  We want our students’ focus to be on school and we want our teachers’ and administrators’ time to be used on teaching and learning—not dress and gang issues.”

The issue prompted discussions this week on Seattle’s Morning News, a local radio broadcast.

“It started in the late ‘80s,” ESPN Seattle’s Danny O’Neil told the news station, according to MyNorthwest.com. “You saw street gangs begin to sue professional teams, most often because of their color combinations, as ways to represent their gang.”

“It’s unfortunate, but I also feel that for school officials, their primary objective is to keep kids safe,” he said.

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Several folks who commented about the decision online, however, don’t think that banning students from wearing professional sports team clothing will do much to curb gang activity.

“This will only deter the wannabes. Back in the day, we wore school uniforms but kids could still communicate affiliation via various methods: haircuts, even how their hair was combed, jewelry, makeup, bandanas, home-made tattoos, etc. The male “hoods” (the roughest kids) wore their hair greased and combed certain ways and the girls rolled up their waistbands to show an unapproved amount of thigh,” Truth Sets Us Fee posted to My Northwest.

“I’ve got a better idea, how about requiring parents to be parents and get involved with their kids lives,” r fish wrote.

Fox Q 13 detailed a rise in gang activity in Everett earlier this year that’s apparently gotten so bad many people in certain neighborhoods are afraid to leave their homes. Everett police confirmed the rise in gang activity with five confirmed gang-related shootings by April.

“I have a 7-month-old baby, I don’t really go out much unless I have to because I feel like if I go gout I will get shot at,” an unidentified mother told the news site after a dive-by shooting down the street from her home this spring.

Many of the gang-related crimes are committed by young people – two 15-year-olds were arrested for a March drive-by – and while school officials are struggling to curb gang influence in schools, others like Casino Road Kids Ministries is working to reach at risk students before they join up.

“The kids involved in gangs, they are kids, too, they need someone in their corner as well. We want to reach out to every kid and say, hey, you have value, you have purpose,” Casino Road spokesman Tyrone McMorris told the news site.

He believes it’s compassion that will ultimately end gang violence in the community.

“We know that they are much bigger than the negative stuff they are doing,” he said.