Take an honest look down any major urban area street and tell me what you see.

“A guy with his pants halfway down his legs walking like a penguin,” Hartford Journalism & Media student Tirrique Clark said of boys wearing sagging pants with their underwear often exposed.

“They have a belt on even though it is not up their holding pants,” David Buie, another JMA student said.  “You can see their basketball shorts as usual.”

Rory Perry, dean of students at JMA in Connecticut, thinks sagging your pants in school is highly inappropriate.

                “A student would never or should never go on a job interview with their pants sagging because the perspective employer wouldn’t hire them,” he a told a JMA reporter in a recent interview. “Professional appearance is important.”

                According to Wikipedia.com, the sagging pants style began in prison because oversized uniforms were issued without belts to prevent suicide or possible altercations. The style then spread from the “ghetto” to rappers in music videos, to even quiet suburban towns. This year varies in style, but students that sag their pants aim for a hip-hop culture flare, which critics say is worn as a badge of delinquency, with its “distinctive walk conveying a thuggish swagger and disrespect for authority,” the website noted.

            However more and more cities are adopting ordinances that ticket people who show up in public with baggy pants. In 2010 the American Civil Liberties Union wrote a letter to one Louisiana town, after council members proposed a resolution concerning saggy pants.  The ACLU stated in the letter “Instead of entering the world of fashion commentary, the Council should protect the rights of all people of Baton Rouge to wear what they choose and know that they will be judged by the ‘content of their character’ and not by their choice of clothing," according to the ACLU.org

                More recently first-time saggy pants offenders in Albany, New York have been ordered to $25 fine and on subsequent offenses; the fine can go up to $200, according to the Albany herald.com.

                According to the Huffington.post.com in late 2011 students at Northwestern High School, in Rock Hill South Carolina, won't face discipline for wearing saggy pants the first time around. Instead, school officials will lend them a belt. The new rule is an update to one that previously sent students to the principal's office if they were found wearing pants that sagged below their waist.

                Danielle Russell, a junior at Hall High School in West Harford, CT said, “I associate with boys that sag their pants. It’s a form of freedom of expression and I don’t feel offended by it. However, if people want to dress like fools, it’s up to them.”

Some say the recent sagging-pants prohibitions in different states are racially motivated because the trend is among predominately young black boys who wear the style. But this fashion has also entered suburban culture because of Caucasian celebrities such as Justin Beiber, Zac Efron and David Beckham sporting the style.

“Sometimes my pants slide down, but it’s the style of the pants,” says Kemar Downie, a sophomore at JMA. He also added, “I sag depending on where I am at. If I’m dealing with a job, I know it wouldn’t be acceptable, but if I’m on the streets, I don’t care.”

When fashion moves from being obnoxious to illegal, it raises the question: “Can the government really tell you what to wear?” The American Liberties Union (ACLU) does not think so. “Why is it being criminalized?” says Courtney Bowie of ACLU.

Advocates of law are still continuing to push the banning of saggy pants. People should not have to see other people’s underwear or even exposed rear ends as they walk down the street, they say.

Schools are also arguing that they have a duty to teach what kind of behavior is acceptable and what is not for students entering the workforce. At JMA, for example, the school handbook mandates a school uniform be worn and prohibits “clothing worn in an inappropriate manner” such as “wearing clothing that sags or in any way reveals undergarments.”

President Obama weighed in on the issues as a candidate in 2008. “I think passing a law against people wearing sagging pants is a waste of time,” he told MTV. “Having said that, brothers should pull their pants up.”