WHAT'S the punishment for a crime of fashion? In many Canadian schools, it's an instant social death sentence.

"That totally happens everywhere," Toronto eighth-grader Jessica Hefele-Lawson says. "If a new kid walks into the class, right away everyone looks the kid up and down to see if they're cool or not."

Ideally, style should not matter, said Jessica, a student at Glen Ames Senior School. It shouldn't be held against you, a classmate added, if, rather than designer-label clothing, your parents can only afford "sweatpants from Sears or Bi-Way with elastic at the bottom."

But the harsh reality is students judge each other by clothing every day, putting intense pressure on cash-strapped parents and accentuating class distinctions to such a degree educators now feel compelled to step in.

They are acting in response to their concerns and those of parents about the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. The problem has reached into middle-class neighbourhoods where families can experience "downward mobility" when a parent loses a job, or a couple splits up.

The issue can be found on the agendas of school boards and parent councils across the country, said Manitoba school trustee Betty Green, president of the Canadian School Boards Association.

To reduce pressure on family budgets, she explained, some public schools have adopted uniforms. Many are re-evaluating the fairness of school trips that leave less-affluent students behind while classmates ski the Laurentians.

In Toronto, "classism" has joined sexism and racism on the equity curriculum.

Jessica, along with her Grade 7 and 8 schoolmates, is part of a pilot project aimed at encouraging children to identify and challenge class bias. For the next month, students at Glen Ames, located in a middle-class Toronto neighbourhood, will conduct workshops on poverty, social attitudes, advertising pressure and community action.

Last Friday, for example, they calculated their monthly food budgets and compared them with that of a single person on welfare. Antipoverty activist Pat Capponi challenged them to think about poverty, middle-class materialism and their own values.

"It is kind of ridiculous to feel superior to kids who were born" into less-privileged circumstances, she said. Children whose families can afford Nike shoes and cellular telephones "lucked into a better position in life," she said. But not everyone can afford designer clothes, let alone to eat properly, Ms. Capponi said, and they shouldn't be mocked.

The pilot project's aim is not to lay a guilt trip on students, said Terezia Zoric, who helped write the draft curriculum for the Toronto District School Board. With 26 per cent of Canadian families living in poverty, the intent is to try to help students realize "social justice means everyone having enough."

After Ms. Capponi's speech, students divided into workshops in which they compared their monthly diets with the Ontario government's suggested "welfare diet" at $90.21 a month for a single person. For most, it was not nearly enough. The diet was bland, they said. Froot Loops, Pizza Pops, mustard, mayonnaise and butter were not on the government's recommended shopping list.

"It is not too bad if the government is giving you money," one girl said. "You can live on that, I think . . . but you don't get to eat what you like."

For Jessica and three fellow members of the Glen Ames student council, Ms. Capponi's speech was food for thought. Jessica, Kelsey Aikman, Kostya Gurlesky and Tyler Armes said they are fortunate to have families that can provide well for them.

Kostya said he was particularly moved by Ms. Capponi's stark portrait of life in poverty. She had told the students there were times when she could only afford one light bulb, unscrewing the bulb in her one-room living area and taking it with her to the bathroom so she could see. "A 99-cent lightbulb, that's the sort of thing we take for granted," Kostya said.

"I think we should just try to be more aware," Jessica said. "And not make fun of kids," Tyler said. "What's so bad about not wearing Nike or Hilfiger?" Kelsey said.

The Glen Ames students are well dressed, but not ostentatiously so. Nonetheless, a lot of peer pressure exists around clothing, Jessica said. "I wish everyone could be equal. We have our own cliques in our school."

All four children saw some merit in school uniforms, which would ease pressure on students and parents, they said. "The main reason is everyone looks equal," Tyler said.

Quinte Secondary School in Belleville, Ont., is one of the Canadian public schools going the uniform route, in part because of designer-label pressure, principal John Chapman said.

The trend has already caught on in the United States, with the New York City Board of Education the most recent board considering uniforms to help eradicate visible differences between rich and poor students in elementary schools.

At Quinte Secondary, the new "dress code" of white shirts with blue or khaki dress pants or skirts will take effect in September as part of an all-embracing school-improvement project," Mr. Chapman said.

The dress code is flexible -- shirts can be T-shirts -- but designer logos are banned. "We're actually mandating against Nike swooshes and the Tommy [Hilfiger] stuff." Local retailers have been advised.

The school has commissioned the design of a Quinte Secondary logo that should appeal to skateboarders, Mr. Chapman said. But there are also the "alternative girls and guys" with their pierced noses and black outfits and the jocks in their tear-away pants and T-shirts. "Everyone has a look going."

Student reaction to the dress code has been mixed -- "it will be an uphill battle" -- but many parents surveyed as part of the school-improvement plan expressed relief, Mr. Chapman said.

"There were kids who wouldn't go out the door if their Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirt was in the dryer. They'd rather be late for school."

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