CHARLESTON, W. Va. – From the misplaced priorities file comes the story of Fred Albert’s crusade to help Kanawha County, West Virginia teachers maintain the right to wear flip flops and facial piercings while teaching students.

The Charleston Daily Mail reports the proposed teacher dress code policy does away with “blue jeans, flip-flops and facial piercings,” among other things.

“It’s very restrictive and totally unnecessary,” Albert, the local teachers union president, told the newspaper. “The only statement that needs to be made is that employees need to dress and behave in a professional manner. We don’t need a prescriptive and strict policy.”

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When this issue surfaced in December, Christine Campbell, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia told the Spirit of Jefferson, “Are we going to line teachers up and measure the length of their skirts?”

“We’re living in a new culture. We’re looking to attract new, young teachers, and for a lot of young people, that’s the way they express themselves,” Campbell said.

Another West Virginia county, Lewis County, had proposed a similar revision to its teacher dress code and union attorney Jeff Blaydes said such restrictions were “inconsistent with [teachers’] statutory and constitutional rights.”

Albert told the Daily Mail he thinks a “majority” of teachers “carry themselves professionally” and therefore a dress code isn’t necessary.

So apparently the minority of teachers who don’t carry themselves professionally should be allowed to act and dress as they please?

The teachers need to understand one thing – they are the employees, and it’s their job to follow the rules established by school administrators. Nobody elected or appointed them to make the rules for the school district.

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They should follow the rules or find another job.