News 12 First at Five, October 13, 2009

AUGUSTA---The Richmond County School System has banned sagging pants during school hours. Now at least one school board member doesn't want to see them at football games, either.

A.R. Johnson teacher Cheryl Dukes checks her students for sagging pants every day. She especially looks out for her sons, who both attend the school.

"I've told them first impressions usually say something about you," Cheryl told News 12. "A person will see you before they ever know you."

Richmond County's dress code forbids sagging pants. Now, the school board vice president is pushing for the ban to be extended to sporting events.

Cheryl is all for it.

"Our students, we should be able to tell them, 'Young man, shirt tails in, because you are on a school campus, at a school event.' We still have jurisdiction I would think," she said.

Her son Victor disagrees. He says a person should be able to dress differently after school.

"During school or on an interview or at church, shirt's in, pants pulled up," Victor said. "But if you're out hanging with your friends, you can pull your pants down. You can have your shirt out."

The school board would have to decide who the policy would apply to, since non-students attend the events as well.

Cheryl hopes she won't have to see any sagging pants at all on school property.

"We just want them to be young men and it's now when we train them, so they will be young men, because they're our future," she said.

Cheryl says she hopes the school board can enforce the rule for everyone at sporting events. She says it's like the no smoking rule, which the board can enforce on all school properties.