DERIDDER — The Beauregard Parish School Board held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss an apparent misinterpretation of uniform guidelines.

Board President David Vidrine said he called the meeting to clarify a measure board members thought they had passed allowing students to wear hoodies bearing logos on school campuses.

“When we passed this back in the spring, apparently we didn’t. The understanding of most of this board was that ‘hoodies’ and ‘jackets’ was interchangeable, the same,” Vidrine said.

“The administration’s interpretation was that the motion specifically talked about colors. I hate to speak for them, but I think that their assumption was the rest of it stays in place, the logo parts and stuff.”

The motion Vidrine referred to was made by board member Ray Bowman and had been intended to allow hoodies on campuses to adhere to the same guidelines as jackets, meaning that there would be no restrictions on colors or logos. But Superintendent Timothy Cooley said that when Bowman officially made his recommendation for the recorded minutes of that spring meeting, only colors was mentioned.

Vidrine said that when the first cool spell came this year and students wore hoodies bearing logos to school, principals of those schools told students that they were not permissible, leading parents to contact their board members.

“I will take a little bit of responsibility for wasting a little bit of time because I should have been more specific with that (original) recommendation,” Bowman said.

The board was unanimous in approving a revised recommendation, again made by Bowman, “to allow logos on sweaters, vests and pullovers to follow coats and jackets guidelines in the student uniform dress code, and include sweaters, vests and pullovers with the jackets and coats section in the student uniform dress code.”

The board also clarified that the accepted logos would not only refer to the brand name or symbol, but could encompass anything on the garments as long as it is not vulgar.

The ordinance was ruled to be effective immediately, but according to Cooley will not require a new handbook to be released this school year.

All minutes from meetings are approved at the following month’s board meeting, and Vidrine cautioned board members to be diligent when reviewing and approving them in the future.

“The business I’m in, minutes actually become a legal working document,” he said. “And if it’s not in the minutes, it didn’t happen.”