Bold Hair Hues Lead to Suspension for 6th-Grader

Oh COME ON! That girls hair is TAME compared to some kid's I've seen! There's Mohawks, Faux Hawks and wild colors everywhere and this girl is in trouble over some red and blond highlights? WHO CARES WHAT COLOR a kids hair is! I used to tell my kids they can have any color hair they want as long as they do good in school, don't get in trouble and get good grades. THAT is what should matter most. Of course there are dress codes and I can understand that but hair color? Some people have natural strawberry blonde hair with red and blonde streaks! Will they be removed? This is stupid. Let kids express themselves now because later on in life they might be expressing themselves with a rifle!

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The school system is geared to stamp out any spark of individuality. They want a supply of drones to do big businesses bidding . Nothing was wrong with this girls hair . The control freaks are gaining ground in this country because we allow it .

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So-called educators have got to be the dumbest folk on the planet. Hair color? Please, From a retired public school teacher who taught with too many stupid teachers and administrators and quit to work with brighter and less discriminatory beings, i.e. dogs and cats.

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When parents send their little darlins off to learn reading and writing and 'rithmetic, the first thing they might want to read is the school handbook.

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I'm not inherently a rule breaker but when a rule over steps it's bounds, then yes I will boldly and openly defy that rule and challenge the consequences.
I have talked a lot with my teens about this and they know that should a situation, such as this hair coloring issue, come up they will suffer many consequences should they choose to fight for what they believe in. And they know I will support their cause.
Had this situation come to my home, and my kids decided they wanted to fight, we would have fought. No way on earth would I have changed the hair color to appease a rule that I feel violates personal freedoms.
You have a right to look any way you wish to look. Doing so will of course come with inevitable consequences and each person needs to decide for themselves if they pay off is worth the fight.
A company might choose not to hire you because of your style, that's OK and one of the consequences. However, a public school is a service paid for by the American tax payer. That's a whole different ball game then an employer.
The child that wants to have purple hair has the same rights under the laws to be educated as the child who chooses to have natural hair. The parents of both children pay taxes to ensure their children have the right to an education.
The most the school can do is in school suspension. And if that's what it took to fight then we would have done it. They can take all that extra time and money educating my child separately from the rest of the school if they feel the hair color issue is really worth it. We'll see how long that lasts. My child would loose nothing. They still get the education they are entitled to, still get's lunch with the rest, etc. Now should the school decide to suspend my child and send him home, then we will all find ourselves in court for violation of personal freedoms.
In the end, the whole dang school would be aware, perhaps more aware, of the hair color then they would have been had the school taken a back seat on the issue. Had the school done nothing, a small portion of the school would be aware of the hair color of 1 child and within a week or less it would be yesterday's news.
In this case, by making it an issue, not only does the whole school know about her hair but the whole world knows as well! And, it won't be yesterday's news for a long time to come - good thinking on the schools part huh?
To say having pink/green/purple/etc. hair is a distraction is silly at best. There are a lot of distractions our children face every day, as do we, and we all survive. Seeing anyone that in any way stands out from the rest; due to clothing style, hair style, hair color, weight, odd glasses/contacts, height, etc. is a so called distraction. Yet we all seem to maneuver through these obstacles of life just fine.
When my kids started their school life's I was in the clouds believing everything the school said and did and pretty much giving them God power over my kids. In the years since I have learned a lot. I've been lied to directly from principals, dealt with some seriously disturbed teachers, we even had to get a restraining order against a school adviser! I had a child punished for another student's behavior...and in the end all he got was a "sorry we messed up" as if that somehow gave back they day out of school they took from him.
I'm no longer in the clouds. I whole hardheartedly support our school functions, our great teachers, and the wonderful staff we do have. But I also stand up to the bad apples we have in our system.
The job of the school is to educate not to hide certain realities. Perhaps instead of turning these issues into a punishment thing they can use them as an educational discussion. They would accomplish a lot more taking a few min. of class time to discuss choices to look different, why we make those choices, and what the possible outcome of those choices might be.

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What does hair color have to do with anything? My daughter's school says that the odd hair colors are attention grabbers that take kids attention away from learning. I went to school with a girl in grade school who had the brightest orange hair that I have ever seen in my life. Natural, orange hair color. In the classroom lights, it glowed it was so orange. Her natural hair color was brighter and funkier than most of the fake colors I see now. Hair color, big deal.

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WTF

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Bet they wouldn't say a word to a black person with blonde hair.

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The child is twelve, way too young to be bleaching her hair. The parent is giving the wrong message for her self esteem. She should be encouraged to feel beautiful without having to change her looks at such a young age. What next, belly piercing at 13.

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I certainly hope he has learned a lot about who he is, with that gaping hole in his lip and a two week suspension.

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All the more reason for homeschooling your kids, IMO. "Big Brother" is sticking his nose in, much too much. There was absolutely nothing wrong with this child's hair, it looks pretty subtle....not like it's hot pink or fluorescent green. What an absolutely ridiculous thing to do, suspending her. As in the case of Damaris.....if he and others were suspended over their hair color but a girl with pink hair is allowed to remain? It sounds like a discrimination suit, to me. I'm glad that my son is grown, because there is *NO WAY* that I would allow him to attend any public school of today.

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I laughed when the "rule book" said no red hair. If its natural red its ok, but if it came from a bottle then no? Hmmmmm

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Absolutely absurd! Her hair was beautiful!
They need to modify their school handbook!

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Schools have an obligation to teach children, they don't have an obligation to control how a parent is raising their child to be individually expressive. Was she at all disruptive in the class? Did she set the school room on fire? Was she loud and obnoxious in such a manner that the educations of all her classmates was denied? I don't think so. Last time I checked, children still learn no matter what they wear, what color their hair is, whether or not there is anything pierced or whatever. How ridiculous is it for a school system to target this child or any child for changing the color of her hair. What has that got to do with her ability to learn or their teachers abilities to teach. I think that the anally retentive people that run these schools better take a trip down memory lane and remember what they were into at the same age as these students are and be less judgmental of what is considered the in thing to do with kids today and concentrate on what their responsibility is rather then focus on something as stupid as whether or not one of their kids wants to express their individuality by dying their hair in rainbow colors. What are they trying to do? Teach these children to be closed off and unable to be creative and imaginative? Are they trying to stiffle our youth into being as anally retentive as they seem to be? That is hardly progressive. These good old boys better realize that not all kids want to grow up to be cowboys.

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I think her hair is done very tastefully. I believe that someone should step up to the plate and file a civil suit against this school for bullying this child. Especially, when there is a pink headed girl in same school. This is a classic example of bullying....only it's the school who's doing it. Bravo, young lady....I'm crazy about the look.....don't let the world take your spirit away....these are not 'gang colors' nor do they depict anything hurtful or shameful. I'd allow my daughter to streak her hair just like yours.......it's very sophisticated!!!!

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Ridiculing kids for normal behavior is vital to distract Texan parents from the poor education that the State Board of Education dictates all their schools must provide. It is so bad that a CONSERVATIVE education think tank the Fordham Institute is reporting that Texan education is "distorting or suppressing historical facts the board found politically unacceptable, such as slavery and segregation, while grossly exaggerating religious influences." Check it out in yesterday's mysanantonio.com.

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