"They make it seem like we don't have a say. These are our children," she said. "This is outrageous. People can't afford food, let alone certain things like uniforms."
Carroll declined to comment.
Since August, Cruel has campaigned to revise the policy to include more options for clothing and vendors where it can be purchased. She has written letters to several district officials and politicians, spoken before the School Reform Commission, gathered more than 1,000 parent and student signatures on a petition and gotten a lawyer to investigate whether the policy is legal.
During a recent closed-door meeting with Cruel, district officials offered to buy five uniforms and a sweater for her daughter, said spokesman Fernando Gallard.
But Cruel refused.
"I feel like they want me to take a bargaining chip and leave the matter alone," she said, noting that by taking the offer she would betray a number of other parents. "I'm not a Judas."
But Gallard said the offer would be extended to those who can't afford the uniform.
"The district is willing to find a way to assist parents with acquiring funding to purchase uniforms," he said.
For Antoinette Hynson, a little help would go a long way.
She said she supports the policy but can't afford the clothes.
"As a single parent I cannot afford the sweater, the same sweater can be purchased for much less at a variety of department stores," she wrote in a letter to Ackerman.
But for Leonard Kravitz, whose son Randy, 18, is a senior, the issue's a little different.
He made numerous phone calls and wrote letters to Carroll and other administrators and never got a call back, he said. He tried to find more information about the policy but was unsuccessful.
