NEW YORK, Aug 6, 2001/ --- Just in time for back-to-school shopping, schools across America are cracking down on flesh in the classroom.

From Chicago to Dallas, New York to LA, administrators are just saying no to halter tops, one-shoulder shirts, short shorts and spaghetti straps. In hopes of guiding parents and their teens as they hit the malls this fall, they are sending letters home, spelling out the body-baring looks that are inappropriate for the halls of academia.

School officials have found that the pop stars of the moment are inspiring a whole new breed of fashion imitation in teens. Madonna's lacey '80s look was conservative compared to the revealing clothes preferred by today's icons, Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears. Even the Spice Girls' mini-dresses and platform shoes now seem tame in retrospect.

Plunging necklines, barely-there skirts, exposed backs and stomachs, and flesh-hugging, low-slung pants have become de rigueur for adolescent girls from coast to coast.

While the '90s saw a crackdown on gang-affiliated styles in schools, today's teachers are focusing on modesty in the classroom. No longer harping on tattoos or earrings or crazy hair colors, educators just want their students to cover up.