At West Side High School in Newark, New Jersey, Principal Akbar Cook was confronting a problem that, at first glance, looked like an attendance problem.
Students were missing school.
Some were absent repeatedly, sometimes for several days every month. Like any educator, Cook wanted them back in their classrooms, completing assignments and moving toward graduation.
But when the school began looking more closely at why some teenagers were staying home, Cook discovered that the problem did not necessarily begin with academics.
For some students, it began with something far more basic:
They didn't have clean clothes to wear.
Some were coming from families struggling financially. Some lacked reliable access to washing machines and dryers. In at least one case described by Cook, a student was experiencing homelessness.
Showing up to high school in dirty or stained clothing was already embarrassing.
Then other students noticed.
Some classmates mocked students because of how their clothes looked or smelled. The humiliation did not always stop when the school day ended. Cook said students sometimes photographed classmates' dirty collars or clothes and posted the pictures on social media.
For teenagers already struggling with difficult circumstances, school could therefore become another place where their poverty was exposed.
Some chose to stay home instead.
Cook realized that telling them simply to improve their attendance would not solve the underlying problem.
So he tried something much more practical.
He put a laundromat inside the school.
The Real Reason Some Students Were Staying Home
Cook's project attracted national attention in 2018, but the circumstances behind it were serious.
West Side High School served hundreds of students in Newark, and chronic absenteeism was a major concern.
Cook told The Washington Post that roughly 85 percent of students at the school were considered chronically absent, with students missing three to five days in a month.
When administrators began contacting families and investigating the reasons students were absent, they discovered that dirty clothes and the bullying associated with them were contributing to the problem for some students.
One student described seeing classmates criticize other students because of how they smelled or because their clothes looked dirty.
Cook said the harassment could continue online.
Students could take photographs of another student's dirty collar, for example, and post them to Snapchat or Instagram.
That changed the nature of the humiliation.
A student could leave the school building, but the embarrassment could follow them home through their phone.
Source: The Washington Post reported in August 2018 on Cook's investigation into absenteeism, the bullying students experienced over dirty clothing and the use of social media to continue the harassment.
One Student Helped Reveal the Bigger Problem
One particular incident helped illustrate just how deeply shame could affect a student.
Cook recalled an encounter involving a teenage girl whose bag was being inspected as she entered school.
The student resisted.
According to Cook's account, authorities eventually discovered that the bag contained dirty clothes and underwear.
The student had reportedly been homeless over the weekend and did not want anyone at school to know.
Cook later described the situation as a student trying to protect her dignity.
It was an important realization.
What could initially look like defiance might have an entirely different explanation.
A teenager could appear uncooperative because she was desperately trying to prevent classmates and adults from discovering circumstances she found humiliating.
And if students feared that humiliation every morning, simply demanding better attendance was unlikely to address the cause.
Sources: CNN's reporting on the project documented Cook's account of the homeless student and her reluctance to reveal the dirty clothes in her bag. ABC News also reported on the incident and the connection between cleanliness, bullying and absenteeism.