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It really has all gone right over your head.....................
You know what is most baffling about all this? What does his playing soccer have to do with the fact that the school requires boys to have their hair shorter?
She continues to harp on how he is in soccer (There are a LOT of kids good in soccer and he doesn't have a prayer with Brazil.). WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?
My son held an afterschool program last year. He said he would never go into teaching, mainly because teachers are not allowed to reprimand students, because the parents are up to the school in a heart beat raising hell. It is happening more and more. If parents would leave teachers and administrators to keep schools in order, there would be no silly crap like this.
My god, the boy is twelve years old. Does he really know what or who he wants to be? He is twelve. He needs to learn that institutions have order and to have order there have to be guidelines (rules).
Parents be glad your child is able to play sports and walk and talk and be normal. Some parents have children who are not his lucky. Be thankful for what you do have and let the schools teach and guide children.
teachers are not allowed to reprimand students, because the parents are up to the school in a heart beat raising hell. It is happening more and more.
I hear this repeated in various media but I've never found it to be the case. Teachers certainly are allowed to reprimand students in approved ways and there are (escalating) consequences for bad behavior. I've never had a parent raise hell at me, just the opposite. Even at high school age, students are afraid of the school contacting the parent because of a problem. Parents want to know when the kid is messing up. Usually the parent sides with the teacher, at least in my experience, and a lot of parents are way tougher and more reactive than I would be. Sometimes you get the distinct impression that when they get the kid home they're likely to slap the crap out of them.
It is available online. If his long hair is THAT important to him you would THINK that a parent would go thru the school dress code with a fine tooth comb BEFORE moving there. Every single school district has a dress code and most are available online and if not by simply picking up the phone and calling.
Oh yeah? I just went to three school districts, chosen at random in three different states, and could not find a single dress code. Two of them require a password to get into the Parent Portal, and the third one made no mention of dress code in the section about preparing your child for school. Googling that school's name and the keyword /dress code/ got no hits.
Do we now live in a nation in which having parents who are computer savvy and can afford a computer is a pre-requisite to children being enrolled in school?
Oh yeah? I just went to three school districts, chosen at random in three different states, and could not find a single dress code. Two of them require a password to get into the Parent Portal, and the third one made no mention of dress code in the section about preparing your child for school. Googling that school's name and the keyword /dress code/ got no hits.
Do we now live in a nation in which having parents who are computer savvy and can afford a computer is a pre-requisite to children being enrolled in school?
I posted 8 different districts in a connecting area to the specific district of the discussion here.
Specifically Godley Middle school says this in their student handbook-online- about boys hair : Boy’s hair length shall be cut above the eyebrows and must not touch the shoulder in length. Sideburns must not extend below the earlobe.
Having said that, all districts in our area have hard copies of student handbooks that are either automatically handed out at registration or available upon request. It's up to the parents to get or find a copy of the district policies and abide by them.
If you read all the policies of that particular middle school, you'll find that many of them are outdated and likely considered ridiculous by most people, yet they are there clear as can be. If a parent feels that strongly about a policy, then they need to follow the proper channels to get it changed. Or they don't enroll their child there.
Excellent point hypocore. My own school district has the handbook printed out in each students daily homework calendar book that they are all given. It's also on-line. At the beginning of the school year one parent and each student must sign that they have read it. I think that's pretty standard. When I first read this thread I was able to google my school district's name along with the phrase "dress code" and there it was. I don't think you need to be particularly computer savvy to find that.
Parents who do not own a computer at all are unlikely to be computer savvy or have access to the school website. Access to a computer should not be a pre-requisite to parenthood of a school-aged child. The first two I went to both denied access without a password to the parent portal, which you don't get until your kid is enrolled. The "students daily homework calendar book" is not normally distributed to prospective parents who might be considering a move to the community.
My point was that there is no reason in the 21st century for parents to assume that a school board is redneck, homophobic and racist when they are making their plans to relocate, and search for evidence of that. And that it is not at all a given that such policies are readily available to the general public.
When you are moving to a particular district that you've specifically chosen for your particular child for a very particular reason, then you should do your due diligence and find out the school's policies. You don't have to have a computer or even be computer savvy to accomplish this.
If you don't have a computer and aren't savvy enough to use one at the library, or if you do try to find the policies online and cannot, then you do what you used to do before the internet. You make a phone call and find out the policies or you go in person and do the same.
I personally have not yet found a school district website that didn't allow access to general information, but I don't doubt they exist. If I was moving somewhere I wasn't familiar with and could not find it online, I wouldn't hesitate to call and find out. It's really not that difficult.
you should do your due diligence and find out the school's policies
Maybe the parents were blindsided and were not anticipating a problem with something as early-rock-n-roll-era antiquated as a conflict mentality over their son's hair length. Much of the country has moved on from the time when crazed southern Baptist ministers burned Elvis records in bonfires.
I remember going into a touristy jewelry store in Wimberley, TX one time. When I said a polite 'hello' to the old lady behind the counter, she squinted at me and said "What ore yew, some kinda got damn yankee ore sumthin?" I guess I had the wrong accent, just like this boy had the wrong haircut. I was totally blindsided by that old lady's reaction to my accent and taken aback by the realization, though I'd been warned about it, that some Texans (not all) still haven't gotten over the civil war.
It would not have occured to me to do due diligence by investigating some older Texans' attitudes toward yankees prior to entering that store. I was just a customer going about my proper business with good intentions. Maybe the parents were properly focused on educational issues and weren't thinking about problems with the fashion police.
YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT HERE\\
This is my son and at the age of 9 my son asked Dad can I have long hair? I said ok I tell you what you can if You Keep It Clean & Brushed,Out of Your Eyes. He has done what I have asked FOLLOWED the RULES. He has had long hair 4th grade NO PROBLEM. 5th grade NO PROBLEM. 6th grade NO PROBLEM. He has played on a U9 U10 U11 U12 U13 SELECT soccer clubs NO PROBLEM. From Kindergarden to 5th grade he had really great grades and in the 6th they went down a little. So as parents we decided to find a better area to live and looked at schools. I found Josha to be a peaceful place to live and the Godley schools to be a good choice for my son. I did research on the web and never found anything about hair ,however I did on clothes. Maybe I messed up when looking and maybe it is on the web, again I found nothing on it. Here is the PROBLEM : I was told I cant ENROLL HIM BECAUSE OF HIS HAIR I did contact the super of the school district and asked why cant he enroll my son and was told his hair. . I told the super what if I dress him in nice slacks belt shirt tucked in with a button up shirt or a Polo shirt and I will trim his hair then can he enroll and again was told NO!
Then I went back with my son with his hair 3in shorter and was told we can enroll him but he will be in ISS till his hair is cut. I asked will he get the proper education as everyone else and was told their will be 1 teacher in ISS with him. But will he get an equall education as everyone else and was told NO! My son regaurdless of his hair has a right to a proper EDUCATION just like any other child. So I start to talk to the super about my son and he interupts and says lets cut through the chase as long as his hair is like that he will be in ISS. Really I say, you tell me why? The 1st time I was told "health issues"and "policy" ok I say but WHY? No other answer. NOW I ask why policy and then I say why what is the difference between your reseptionists hair and his? GENDER if you did not hear that or see that GENDER. I left, the last words is said "MY GRANDFATHER FOUGHT IN WAR FOR OUR AMERICAN RIGHT OUR COUNTRY AND YOU WILL NOT DICTATE WHAT MY SON DOES. Now he shows up on TV and says BULLIES are the issue I BELIEVE THAT HE NEEDS TO DEAL WITH THE BULLIES. AND LEAVE MY SONS RIGHTS ALONE!!!!!!! So my son Chris has followed the rules my rules. The schools have no RIGHT to stop my son from a PROPER EDUCATION and if he is in ISS he needs to have teachers teach him and be qualified to teach each class even if it is Choir, PE , Math , English, Spanish,Biology, HISTORY you know what that is dont you ? If not maybe you should read up on it and that would teach some of you about And those of you who disagree I respect your opinion however as someone else quoted "SCHOOLS RULES DO NOT TRUMP THE CONSTiTutION"
In the above bold fonted quote the young boy's Mom tells us that she did look on-line for the dress code.
I can understand giving academics a priority when looking for a school but if that were the case here, I think that most parents would opt to cut their child's hair, concentrate on the academics and then try to get the silly rule changed. I think soccer and hair were the priorities..
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