Florida school targeting sagging pants

PLANTATION, Fla., March 26 (UPI) -- Students at a high school in Plantation, Fla., better pull up their sagging pants or be prepared to get a belt, the school's assistant principal says.

Plantation High School Assistant Principal Brougher Bass said Thursday is Pull Up Your Pants Day at the school and any students found with sagging pants will be presented with a complementary belt, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel said.

"We want our students to have the ability to express themselves," Bass said, "but we want them to have dignity, too."

Pants Day represents the culmination of an effort by Plantation High teachers Diana Carter and Dona McKenzie, who became frustrated by the sagging pants fashion trend.

The two reading teachers convinced an area Wal-Mart to donate an unspecified number of belts to the school and Pants Day was created, the Sun-Sentinel said.

The newspaper said the Plantation High effort isn't the first time sagging pants have been targeted in Florida. Low-riding pants are banned in public facilities in Opa-locka, Fla., while residents of Riviera Beach, Fla., cannot wear sagging pants if their skin or underwear becomes exposed as a result.