HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. – Officials in North Carolina’s Orange County Schools revamped the student dress code last week to ban all attire that’s “disruptive” or could potentially offend other students.

“Times have changed,” OCS board chairman Stephen Halkiotis told WNCN. “If people don’t understand times have changed, you better go see a doctor pretty quick and get some medication to control yourself because you’re gonna have problems.”

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The change stems from parents who addressed the school board with concerns about students wearing the Confederate flag on clothing in school, which they contend is intimidation against black and minority students.

Parent Latarndra Strong led a group of 17 people who urged the board to specifically ban the Confederate flag at a meeting earlier this month. Initially, the board created an “equity task force” to evaluate the request, which enraged some who demanded immediate action, the Herald Sun reports.

Parent protestors, many with the group “Hate-Free Schools Coalition,” toted signs at the meeting that read “Cowards don’t get re-election,” “Listen to your community” and “Halkiotis for school bully!”

Strong told the dress code policy, approved by a board policy committee on Wednesday, “is absolutely a step forward” but said she was disappointed that the new dress code does not specifically mention the Confederate flag.

Instead, the new dress code gives principals discretion to determine whether clothing is disruptive or intimidating. The principal must then gain the superintendent’s approval to demand students remove clothing that’s not appropriate.

“If the staff member and the principal doesn’t see it as reasonable intimidation, then we’re back at the same place,” Strong told WNCN.

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The new policy is expected to be formally approved by the board at its August 14 meeting.

“I think we’re going to wait and see what happens in the enforcement end of the school in the new year,” Strong told WCHL. “But I’m hopeful; I’m hoping that the school board understands that the Confederate flag itself is a disruption.”

Orange County Schools Superintendent Todd Wirt said the move was “good work on the part of our board” and that it’s just the beginning of a renewed focus on improving race relations in the district.

“The short-term work for us is: how do we carry out this policy on a daily basis,” he said. “The long-term work that I foresee happening here and coming out of our equity task force is: race-specific training, cultural-competency training, starting with our leaders and over time moving down to the classroom level.”

Strong told WCHL the parents group plans to hold the district’s feet to the fire.

“We have parents from every school represented in the district,” she said. “And we will be on the ground level making sure that our schools are clean and clear of racial symbols and move to a place where we can create equity for our students.”