Posted on 11/27/2013 1:24:25 AM PST by grundle
A 12-year-old girl will be expelled from a Florida school unless she gets her hair under control, school officials have told her. Vanessa VanDyke, an honors student and violinist at the Faith Christian Academy in Orlando, tells WKMG that administrators have given her one week to decide whether to cut and shape her hair or leave the school, which she has attended since the third grade.
Faith Christian Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Yahoo Shine. And VanDyke’s mother, Sabrina Kent, could not be reached for comment.
But WKMG reports that the school’s handbook includes a section on hair that says it “must be a natural color and must not be a distraction,” stating examples that include mohawks, shaved designs and rat tails. However, notes Kent, “A distraction to one person is not a distraction to another. You can have a kid come in with pimples on his face. Are you going to call that a distraction?"
VanDyke wears her hair in a natural African-American style, which she says she won’t change. “It says that I'm unique,” she tells WKMG. “First of all, it's puffy and I like it that way. I know people will tease me about it because it’s not straight. I don’t fit in.”
She notes that fellow students have recently been teasing her about her hairstyle and it has only become an issue with the school since her family logged complaints about those incidents. Still, if the Faith Christian Academy administrators won’t reverse course, VanDyke says she will go to school elsewhere. “I’m depressed about leaving my friends and people that I’ve known for a while, but I'd rather have that than the principals and administrators picking on me and saying that I should change my hair,” she explains.
(Excerpt) Read more at shine.yahoo.com ...
The only thing natural about her hair style is that it is unkemmpt and the only thing negro about it is that it is causing distraction. That bush is a safety hazard; get it caught in a door and listen to the caterwauling.
Or they could ban big hair altogether as a safety issue.
Sorry...the school is right....her hair looks like a birds nest...it is a distraction...
Mom and kid need to learn to live by the rules....
If a white male kid had hair down to the crack of his butt...some issue....
Due to the “sensitive” nature of the complaint. ...as everything now having a racist element...what should be a cut and dried issue....is now fodder for race baiting..
I like the hair with the violin. (Imagining Vanessa playing from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.) I am one of those on this forum who remembers classical music being called “long-hair” music.
I like her hair. Shame on the dimwits at that school for threatening her for it. Her parents ought to send her to a Catholic school instead of a “Christian” school with petty attacks on her natural appearance.
She’s attended a school with strict standards as fsr as dress and grooming. That her creative hairstyle would potentially become a problem was no doubt understood by her and her parents. If her budding musical talent means that she must have big, lopsided hair then maybe another school is in order? We all make choices. This one is easy. The school or the hair. Pick one and deal with it.
I saw the news report on TV, her hair is gigantic, literally 4 feet in circumference. The posted pic makes it look smaller. Kids sitting behind her in class would never see the front wall of the room. I don’t think kids are picking on her because its puffy, its because its way out of proportion and probably annoying. The school policy is clear and they should enforce it.
If you're attending a religious school, most of the time you are expected to dress and keep your appearance up to certain standards.
You are so correct on both points….which is why this is a toughie to comment on. Private schools, like privatve businesses, should be free to make their own decisions. In this case, it seems like a very stupid decision. Perhaps a touch pharisaical in fact.
Isn’t that a fire hazard?
Private school. Abide by their rules or get out. The hairdo is bizarre ugly and distracting
Can we wait to cut the hair until after the birds nesting within have learned to fly?
It is surely that.
“Perhaps a touch pharisaical in fact.”
Jesus was a distraction too, and look what they did to Him! This kid is getting off easy.
Seems to me everyone could be a bit more “Christian”. The girl and her parents could recognize and acknowledge the distraction and/or the interference of the other kids view of the blackboard. (Cut it a bit, sit in back, etc.).
The bullies could definitly learn some lessons.
And the school could help mediate things.
People can't see over her head, it's like wearing a giant hat.
Send the girl to public school with all the bang gangers and let her "express" herself there!
Yeah, I have problems with both sides in this - given the limited info we have.
It seems to me the kid and parents are non-conforming to make a point….all in a school that clearly adheres to proven policies of some uniformity in dress and grooming in a school setting. I mean if non conformity is big for you, and that’s fine, then perhaps choose another school.
The parents and the child also seem quick to run for attention here, instead of trying to solve the problem. There are details unknown to us…having only this one story….
Yeah, I have problems with both sides in this - given the limited info we have.
It seems to me the kid and parents are non-conforming to make a point….all in a school that clearly adheres to proven policies of some uniformity in dress and grooming in a school setting. I mean if non conformity is big for you, and that’s fine, then perhaps choose another school.
The parents and the child also seem quick to run for attention here, instead of trying to solve the problem. There are details unknown to us…having only this one story….
I have family that attend Faith Assembly (Faith Christian Acad church) and have family who taught there. The school is strict but not extreme. The young girls hair is a distraction.
Not sure which part of Africa this girls family is from...but there is no African group with wild hair like that. None
The school has dress codes. Follow them or don’t go there. I bet Faith even offered to give her bands or barrettes to pin back her hair
Or they could just seat her at the rear of the classroom so she doesn’t block anyone’s view.
The posters with the negative comments about her hair are unfair: she keeps it clean and natural and she looks quite pretty. She is apparently well- behaved and scholastically successful, so the rest is pretty unimportant, nicht war?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.