My senior editor Eric Snider just reminded me of a story printed in the St. Petersburg Times this weekend about Baldwin, a small town near Jacksonville which passed an ordinance this month banning the fashion fad of sagging pants. (The city of Opa-Locka, near Miami, passed a similar law last year.)

The new law in this little place in northeast Florida makes it illegal within town limits to wear baggy, below-the-butt pants, and comes with punishments ranging from 40 hours of community service to a $500 fine. The five-person Town Council passed it last month unanimously.

Baldwin has joined a debate that's gone national, raising issues of freedom of expression, indecent exposure and the possibility of racial profiling because the majority of the wearers of the baggy pants are young, black and mimicking hip-hop stars.

The article reminded me of another sagging pants story I've kept on my desk for several weeks:

Last month, Gary Siplin, a Democratic state senator from Orlando, introduced (for the third time) a bill to require students in public school to “pull up those pants, boy!” Violators who expose their underwear would face phone calls to their parents and a second offense would be a three-day suspension. If that young whippersnapper hasn’t learned his lesson, he’ll get 10 days suspension for his third offense. The bill already passed the majority-Republican Pre-Kindergarten-12th Grade Education Committee and could go to the Senate floor next month.

How’s that for bipartisanship!

I’m not going to spend a lot of time mentioning several school districts, including Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, already have rules that restrict "sagging." Or go into the fact that prohibiting a fashion fad by state law will only make it even more fashionable.

I’m just going to give you Gov. Crist’s comment on SB 302 as reported by the Associated Press: “Style is not my issue.”

Thoughts?

This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2008.