COEUR d'ALENE - No revealing clothing. No kissing or cuddling in the hallways, and no swearing.

Those are just a few new rules facing kids in the Coeur d'Alene School District this year.

School officials have unveiled a comprehensive set of proposed school policies that address student behavior. There are new rules for how students are expected to dress, and rules that restrict public displays of affection to hand holding and a brief hug only.

Existing policies dealing with the use of electronic devices, weapons and harassment are being refined and tightened.

The draft policies emerged from a task force set up last year by Superintendent Hazel Bauman.

"I began seeing more and more kids taking liberties, stretching the old policies," Bauman said.

Existing policies weren't being consistently enforced, she said. In many cases, principals were leaving it up to the individual teachers to decide which rules would apply in their classrooms.

Some teachers reported being branded as "mean" if they enforced existing rules, Bauman said. There were also parents who shared concerns about lax discipline in school buildings.

In March, a month before the student behavior task force began meeting, a student at Woodland Middle School was stabbed by another student.

"What happened at Woodland, no one was seriously injured, but it could have been terrible," Bauman said.

The task force, made up of school trustees, community members, parents, middle and high school principals, district administrators, teachers, counselors and students, met on Tuesdays from April to June.

Joel Wasserman, an incoming Coeur d'Alene High School senior and student body president, served as a student representative on the task force's electronics committee.

He said he pushed for students to be allowed to use electronics devices and cell phones outside of class. If students were able to use their cell phones on school grounds during the day, Wasserman said they would be less likely to use them during class.

"Every student does it at some point," Wasserman said.

Wasserman said he feels positive about most of the rule changes, and thinks that they will be good for the school.

"A few are a little over the line," Wasserman said. "Dress code and language should not be addressed so harshly because that's freedom of expression for students."

The new dress policy specifically bans shirts that leave the shoulders bare or allow the waist or hips to show. That means no halter tops or spaghetti straps.

The policy guideline: "If you raise your arms to shoulder level and the stomach shows, the top is unacceptable."

Shirts and blouses cannot be low cut, "breast revealing," see-through, backless or tube-style. Skirts and shorts cannot be above mid-thigh.

"When either boys or girls come to school in revealing clothing, it distracts from learning," Bauman said. "We want to teach to and model what the general mores of society are."

Pants have to be pulled up; they can't be worn with the waistline below the hips or reveal underwear.

The dress policy bans pajamas and sleep wear, and prohibits "nylon tights, biker pants or boxer shorts worn as an outer garment."

Hoods, bandanas, bandana headbands and sunglasses are no longer allowed to be worn in school buildings, and principals can outlaw any other type of hat they deem unacceptable.

Students don't have to embrace the new clothing polices, Bauman said, although they are expected to abide by them.

The hope is it will increase their future employability, and help them be successful in life, she said.

"We want to level the playing field for all kids," Bauman said.

Dress code and language policy violators will be given warnings and corrective measures will be taken, Bauman said. Repeat offenders could face additional consequences including suspension.

As the policies were developed, task force members used information collected from high school student focus groups.

"Some students were surprised to learn that people think their manner of speaking is unacceptable," Bauman said.

Many of those students said that is the way they speak at home, and the way their parents talk to them.

Nearly all students said they never use vulgarity in front of their grandparents.

"We agreed that's the standard we have to set in school," Bauman said. "We call that the grandparent standard."

Regarding the tightening of the electronic device policy, Bauman said some teachers were allowing students to use ear buds to listen to iPods or MP3 players while doing individual class work.

"That doesn't sound too bad, but they don't take those ear buds out when they're walking down the hall. Then, they're not interacting with anyone," Bauman said.

When the student goes into another class, the ear buds are still in, and that teacher is now in the position of having to decide whether to enforce the rule.

Electronic devices and cell phones have been banned from use during school hours by school board policy since 2008. The amended policy being considered nixes use of electronic devices in classrooms all the time, unless the device is being used by the teacher as a learning tool. Teachers will have to get their principal's authorization before using such a device in the classroom.

The school district has revisited its weapons policy, and is removing a section that allows a student to have amnesty from suspension and possible expulsion if he or she unintentionally brings a knife or other weapon to school and brings it to the principal.

"That happens all the time," Bauman said. "We have kids who go hunting or fishing, or they have jobs where they use a pocket knife or box cutter, and they forget to remove them from their backpacks."

She said 99 percent of the weapons they see in the schools are small knives.

Bauman would like to leave the amnesty policy in place because she thinks without it, kids will be less likely to self-report these incidents. Statutorily, she said, the district must remove it.

Bauman thinks most of the policies will be well-received by parents. "The dress code is the area I'm worrying about the most," she said.

She expects some parents will complain because they have bought their children clothes for school that are no longer acceptable.

The district plans to begin making students familiar with the rules during the fall semester. When school starts again after the Christmas break, the policies will be enforced.

Teachers will be expected to model all the behaviors, including the dress code, for students, Bauman said.

The policies are posted on the district's website, www.cdaschools.org, and public comment is being accepted on them through Oct. 30. The district's policy advisory committee will review the comments before the policies go before the board for final approval in November.

The policy changes have the support of the school board, Bauman said.