Annysa Johnson and Brittany Carloni:

When Pulaski High School mandated student uniforms this year, plenty of kids grumbled, according to Principal Lolita Patrick. But one boy actually thanked her.

The 10th grader had had lots of problems, academic and behavioral, his freshman year. So much so, he’d told staff last year that he might as well drop out and sell drugs “because he was tired of being judged by what he had to wear.”

The bullying stopped, Patrick said, when he returned in the fall to a school where he dressed like everyone else, in the same khaki pants and navy blue or red polo shirt.

“And guess what — he didn’t drop out. Not only is he in school, but he has managed to reduce the number of disciplinary referrals that he has received from last school year by 50%,” Patrick told Milwaukee Public Schools board members considering a districtwide uniform policy at a committee meeting earlier this month.