This reminds me of the stupidity in the 60s. In Houston, a city with one of the highest murder rates in the country, young men were arrested while walking down the street, put in a cop care and hauled off to jail. Their offense? Their hair was below their collars. Forget that someone was getting raped, robbed or murdered two blocks away.
Now, here we are nearly 50 years later and about to begin 2010, and it seems we haven't progressed an inch. This little four year old boy was expelled from school for having his hair too long. School officials have rescinded the expulsion and put him on in-school suspension instead. Why don't they just make him wear a hairshirt, so he can stick out even more like a sore thumb?
The officials explain that the rule applies to everyone in school. They admit that it's a little conservative but the rule is there because long hair is distracting. That's ridiculous, and they know it, so why don't they change the rule at the first opportunity.
While I don't agree with the school authorities, I have a few problems with the parents as well. I'm sure they knew the dress code when they put the kid in school there. Whether they agree with the rule or not, they need to teach this very cute little boy about boundaries.
Worse, nobody here is thinking about the psychological impact on the child because he's being isolated.
Teabaggers....they have no respect for authority or rules! :)
ReplyDeleteMost of the Texas school systems are run by teabaggers. An interesting history - some education boards want to rewrite the textbooks, so only Christian based theories are taught. No Darwin, no Cesar Chavez, no education.
ReplyDeleteJust a second...
ReplyDelete"long hair is distracting"?
Distracting only on boys?
Dare I say... that if this was a girl not being allowed to do something boys can do... the school could be smashed into the ground for gender discrimination?
Or perhaps not.
And suspending/isolating a kid for some stupid reason isn't "distracting"? Morons.
ReplyDeleteThat kid's hair isn't even really very long. If I passed him on the street it wouldn't occur to me to think it was too long.
Kudos to the parents for sticking up for him.
I'm sure they knew the dress code when they put the kid in school there.
ReplyDeleteThat's far from obvious. Most likely it's just the local public school and they have no real choice about sending him there. They wouldn't necessarily sift through every last adminstrative rule the school has on the off chance that one of them might be this silly.
Maybe they hope to teach their kid about the very American principle of standing up for oneself against irrational, arrogant, bullying authority.
Magpie: All I can say is, this is Texas.
ReplyDeleteInfidel: Before I say anything, let me emphasize that I think the school officials are ignorant as hell, but the rules were probably dictated by the Board of Education.
Anymore, most schools provide at least an outline of dress codes with back-to-school packets
I still think the parents may be just as guilty of ignorance. This is a four year old child. I doubt seriously if he has the maturity to understand what's really happening or why. This is kindergarten for Pete's sake. When he gets older and is able to reason and to make choices for himself, then he should go for it. They are part of the problem - helping to isolate him from his mates.
I was pretty free with my kids but at that age I tried to teach them to respect those boring old boundaries and to take responsibility for their actions/choices. As their reasoning started to mature they gained more and more freedom. Amazingly they've turned out pretty well despite the fact that their own mom didn't always make wise choices.
If you think this school is wacko, you'll be interested in reading this blog I put up a few months ago:
http://parsleyspics.blogspot.com/2009/08/texas-state-board-of-education-dummies.html
And I'm getting ready to put up one about another four year old from right chere in TN.
ReplyDeleteThis one is on his way to a life in prison.
Pathetic. These people need to get a life.
ReplyDelete