Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
jtur88 - your perspective is no more valid than mine. I live in Austin - and my kids go to public schools. We have a dress code, but it is hardly draconian. The biggest issue right now is the very small tops some girls want to wear. They are indeed a distraction to many.
The so-called Texas perspective Teachertype talks about is BS. I went to public schools in San Antonio while relatives and friends have schools in Fort Worth, Katy (near Houston), and other areas.
These kids look and dress just about like every other urban kid in the US of similar socio-economic status. I'm not close to any inner-city campuses so I assume I am missing out on a certain demographic group.
People who live outside of Texas shouldn't place too much value on media stories about textbook selection. I don't like those decisions much - but the actual effect on the classroom is minimal.
Well.... Very interesting views: If Chris and myself are crying about this issue and you think it is wrong that I am breaking the rules FINE. So be mad!! Are you also mad at the schools for breaking the law(RULES) by not letting him enroll? Double standards?? I noticed that some are saying its just hair, fine then it's just hair. I personally think some of you people are scared of people with long hair for whatever reason.Intimidated maybe? Next does hair make a person? Well I dont know ask Willy Nelson, Charlie Daniels, Jon Bon Jovi ,David Spade ,Lenny Kravitz ,Russell Crowe ,Josh Holloway , Owen Wilson ask Disney’s Jonas Brothers —ask Kate Hudson’s son Ryder Robinson ask Celine Dion’s son Rene-Charles Angelil ask many Japanese businessmen who wear their hair long ask Samual from the bible. I dont know maybe it makes a person maybe not. My son is not the kid down the street busting out windows, he is not the kid painting everyones fence down the street.Smoking dope behind a vacant building. He cares about people. Get this he is not a bully and he dont get bullied. No!I did not come here to change any rules. I was just told he cant enroll with that long hair. Then I tried to go to Mr. Smithson and was told WATCH THIS! Gender was the reason he cant have long hair in school. That is against the law. So go to the school and yell at them for breaking the LAW or is that another word for RULES? If the school just enrolled him and never said the word Gender. And if they said he would get a proper education like everyone else and the said he would not./ I would not have a leg to stand on. But they did. And get this which was never brought up. If he did attend he would not be able to ride the school bus. So I am being told the school can break rules but if I fight for my son to have long hair I am WRONG!!!!!
I just did a search online to see if I could find any dress-code long-hair issues anywhere besides the two in he Dallas area that we have already discussed here. Sure enough, I found another. And sure enough, it's from Texas, where momof2dfw and jazznblues have so many broadminded and progressive friends, that they can't distinguish their congressional district from Barney Frank's:
" Monday was the first day of school. My son came home with a letter for me to sign saying I would go online and read the dress code (They apparently don't hand them out anymore?)Also, he came home saying that he was told to get a hair cut...sorry hadn't seen the dress code yet. His hair wasn't as long as some I saw at the school, by the way. Fine..no problems yet. Told my son to tell them he would get it cut on Saturday since both my wife and I work, never minding the fact that my son is at school until after 8 pm for football. As far as I knew, all was cool.
Thursday night, I find out that my son was placed in a private vehicle and taken off the school grounds to get a hair cut by a school employee. This was done without my knowledge or consent. They blackmailed my son into doing this by telling him that if he did not, he would not be allowed to play in the JV football game. I went to the Varsity game on Friday and imagine my surprise when I saw kids with hair longer than his had been. Complaints to the school were met with indifference. I am so furious that I find myself refusing to call or visit the school until I calm down some, but that seems to be harder than one might imagine. The bad thing is that if I do anything too rash, my son will be the one that pays for it, be it through embarrassment or retaliation."
jtur88 - it is easy to highlight a few examples like the one you did.
But the vast majority of kids attend school without any incidents at all. The newspapers wouldn't write a story that said "everything was OK today."
LOL!!! I guess we need to get all of the kids w/ long hair that are allowed to attend school to get on the news and tell about them not having an issue. LOL!!!
Well, here you go from OUTSIDE of Texas:
1. ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. - The celestial scene on Jay Cowell's head, "[is] for God and all the stuff he made on the earth." But Elizabeth City school officials didn't agree. The 8th grader at River Road Middle School was ordered to change his hair because the star shape is also a gang symbol.
2. Milwaukee first grader Lamya Cammon was told by her teacher to stop playing with her hair. When she kept doing it, the teacher cut off the 7-year-old's braid.
3. Michigan - The mother of a 14-year-old high school student wants her son back at school after he was suspended for long hair that doesn't comply with the dress code.Claudius Benson, a ninth grader at Old Redford Academy in southwest Detroit, hasn't had a haircut in 10 years because of his religious beliefs.
4. A Pakistani student at a New York City high school was charged with a hate crime on Friday, accused of cutting the waist-length hair of a 15-year-old Sikh.
5. Let us not forget ever so liberal Seattle
In Seattle, Wash., a white male teacher had an 8-year-old African American girl removed from the classroom. In most cases, children are removed for behavioral and disciplinary issues, which is clearly understandable and acceptable; however, this wasn’t the case here. The teacher removed the girl, claiming her Afro was making him sick. Bellen Drake still can’t believe she’s here, at a news conference with the NAACP, fighting to get her 8-year-old daughter back into honors classes - all because of hair moisturizer.
6. HAMILTON — An in-school suspension for a haircut has a Hamilton family wondering about school priorities and freedom of speech. Dustin Reader, an eighth-grader at Garfield Middle School, received an in-school suspension Monday because of a haircut he received over the weekend in honor of the Cincinnati Bengals.
7. Headlines about school district battles over student hairstyles are now focusing on Ohio, where a mother of an 11-year-old boy says he was publicly humiliated by a teacher and a classroom aide and has filed a federal lawsuit over their alleged "gender-based harassment" of the boy. When the unidentified boy was younger, some children teased him about his professionally styled, apparently shoulder-length hair. At that point, his mother, Amanda Anoai, says she told her son to toughen up or cut his hair
8. CINCINNATI — A southwestern Ohio woman filed a lawsuit accusing a sixth-grade teacher and a teacher's aide of humiliating her son for his long hair by tying it into ponytails, making him stand in front of classrooms and encouraging students to mock him.
This does not even cover the ones that have had to deal w/ the COLOR of ones hair.
Oh, and on the West Coast in California a school district has banned the breast cancer awareness bracelets that say, "I (heart) Boobies". My daughter wears them as do several of her friends. No problems.
School dress codes have nothing to do with the government. There have been dress codes at least 60 years or more set by schools, and most of them mention hair.
Some schools require uniforms, some require hair to be cut for boys, some require girls to wear skirts long enough to sit without their behinds bare on the school chairs.
School don't arbitrarily set codes when they find out someone with long hair will be attending. These have been put in place for a long time. What is so wrong expecting students to show respect for others and look presentable, healthy and covered?
A lot of kids grow up with very little rules outside the home. School is the first step to their independence in the world. By schools holding to a dress code, the students learn that the rest of the world has rules and they are expected to obey them whether they want to or not.
Life is like that. Sometimes you have to go by the rules.
The public schools are run by the government (the district gets funding from both the state and federal government and the city sets up the school districts which are funded by your taxes).
None of the schools I attended (in the 50s and 60s) mentioned hair in their dress codes. They did have dress codes and some were bizarre, but they did not mention hair. The schools my children attended in the 70s didn't say anything about hair either
Here is the current dress code at their HS
Quote:
Appearance and Dress. Appropriate dress and grooming are critical to the maintenance of a safe, educationally conducive school atmosphere and are mainly the responsibility of the student and parent. Maintaining a neat and modest appearance and not wearing clothing that could be deemed offensive to others help promote a comfortable learning environment. The following must be avoided:
• Clothing or apparel that denotes or suggests gang affiliation or shows vulgar or offensive messages, satanic cult or racist references, alcohol or drug-related paraphernalia, or messages that denigrate others in any way. You will be asked to remove/replace such clothing.
• Outwear (coats, gloves, and hats) is to be left in your locker during school hours.
• Headbands, hats, hoods, or head coverings are not allowed, except for medical or religious reasons.
• Brief and revealing clothing. Examples include tank or halter tops, garments with spaghetti straps or strapless garments; clothing that is “see-through,” cut low, or exposes one’s midriff; or skirts that are shorter than 3-inches above the knee.
• Clothing that reveals undergarments (saggy pants, pants below waist).
• Swimsuits and physical education uniforms should only be worn in appropriate classes.
• Clothing or accessories considered dangerous or threatening—studded wrist bands, etc..
• Shoes that could jeopardize your safety.
• Costumes.
If there is any doubt about dress and appearance, the Assistant Superintendent/Principal will make the final decision. Repeated violations of these guidelines may result in confiscation, if appropriate, and disciplinary action. Because administrators and teachers believe there is a correlation between appearance and behavior and that requiring proper dress is goodpreparation for future careers, we encourage you to behave and dress in a manner that reflects appropriate attire for school.
It seems pretty reasonable and leaves a lot up to the discretion of the parent.
Here is our school districts Secondary Dress Code and I'm IN Texas (that backwards non-progressive place )
■Shorts of modest length and loose fitting and hemmed may be worn by students as designated by the building principal.
■Dresses or skirts should be of modest length and fit.
■Extremely sloppy or badly torn clothing will not be permitted.
■Shoes must be worn. Taps, metal plates, or cleats on shoes will not be permitted.
■House shoes, pajama tops or bottoms will not be permitted.
■Extremes in modes of dress such as see-through clothing, exposed midriffs, or clothing normally considered as undergarments are not acceptable.
■Students shall wear their hair above the eyes, well-groomed, and clean at all times, and extreme modes of hair design and color will not be allowed.
■Male students will not be permitted to wear earrings or make-up.
■Apparel that advertises or depicts alcohol, drugs, nudity, tobacco products, satanic themes, gang membership, obscene language, obscene graphics, and/or phrases that are offensive to others will not be permitted.
■Hats, caps, bandanas or sweat bands should not be worn in the school building.
■Any disruptive or distractive mode of clothing or appearance that adversely impacts the educational process is not acceptable.
■Body piercing is not allowed. This includes spacers or place holders.
■Tattoos may be required to be covered (principal or his/her designee's discretion).
■Facial hair such as beards, mustaches, and goatees will not be permitted. Dermatological conditions will be considered.
■Sponsors of extracurricular activities may set individual dress and appearance standards with the approval of the principal.
I just did a search online to see if I could find any dress-code long-hair issues anywhere besides the two in he Dallas area that we have already discussed here. Sure enough, I found another. And sure enough, it's from Texas, ...
Quote:
Hair——Must be clean, combed and neat. The following are not permitted:
Spiked hair that stands out from the head more than one inch.
Naturally curly hair that stands out from the head more than 3 inches.
Hand-tosseled hairstyles that appear unkempt.
Hair in front (“bangs”) below the eyebrows.
Distracting hairstyles, including female shaved scalps.
Male students’ hair longer than top of shoulders in back. Ponytails are not permitted.
Unnatural coloring, streaking, tipping, bleaching, dyeing. Highlighting must be subtle with no notable difference between light and dark hair.
Male sideburns lower than the bottom of the ear or extending out onto the cheek (unblocked).
Beards and tuft of beard under lower lip (“stinger”). A neatly trimmed moustache is permitted. Students who are not clean-shaven will shave and be charged a fee of $1 for use of a razor. In the rare instance where facial hair cannot be shaved for medical reasons, (dermatologist note required), the student must receive permission from the Dean’s Office.
Archbishop Mitty High School - Dress Code (http://www.mitty.com/policies/25_dress.php - broken link) (California)
Quote:
Hair is to be neat, clean, well-groomed and styled so that vision will not be obstructed. Facial hair is limited to a mustache and sideburns no lower than the corners of the mouth. Disruptive hairstyles or colors will not be permitted. Only naturally occurring hair colors will accepted.
Male hair length must be of even distribution. The hair may not extend below the plane of the shoulder nor down upon the eyebrow in front, nor down below the earlobes. Hair must be clean, well-groomed and neat at all times. (Lines cut in the hair, shaven hair, "mohawk" cuts, extreme coloring of hair, "tails" or any other hairstyle which interferes with a student's performance or that of his classmates is prohibited.)
The public schools are run by the government (the district gets funding from both the state and federal government and the city sets up the school districts which are funded by your taxes).
None of the schools I attended (in the 50s and 60s) mentioned hair in their dress codes. They did have dress codes and some were bizarre, but they did not mention hair. The schools my children attended in the 70s didn't say anything about hair either
Public schools are run by the community they are in, and only academically do they answer to the Dept. of Ed. in each state.
Dress codes are NOT set by the state. They are set by the school board (community members) of each school.
When I was in high school (60's), we did have a dress code. No blue jeans, I don't remember what all, but I do remember a student who was in band with his brothers. He had a haircut like the Beatles. His hair came over the top of his ears and he was suspended until he cut it. It could not go over the collar of the shirt, or over the ears.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
