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 ...
“There were kids in my high school back in the 80s with hair like that.”
Oh yeah, in fact way bigger ‘fros than that gal has. And those were just the Jewish guys.
Situations like this are a great opportunity to teach the other kids some valuable life lessons about respect and the golden rule.
When my oldest daughter was in elementary school the class played King and Queen where students walked around the room with an eraser on their heads. My daughter said it wasn’t fair that the black girls could keep the erasers on their heads easier than the white kids. LOL
Emote much?
Private chool has a published handbook detailing acceptable grooming standards.
Little Miss Snowflake Vanessa VanDyke "...says she won't change. It says that I'm unique, 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."
So there, Miss VanDyke has been raised by her mom, Sabrina Kent, to believe that she is unique, one of a kind, none like her in the whole world, in fact, never has there been anyone in the history of the world like little Miss VanDyke.
Rules? Pfui! That's old school. Well, maybe she and her mother did read the handbook and maybe Vanessa was enamored of a different hairstyle that was in conformance with the academy's standards. But now Vanessa chooses to place her wild wind swept tumbleweed hair do over the learning opportunities. Sabrina Kent is down with that, anything her little snowflake desires, the world must deliver.
So rather than tying her hair back while in school, she pouts, stamps her perfect little honor student feet and wails, "Why is everybody picking on me?"
And the next time Vanessa decides to change her hairstyle, that too will be unique, one of a kind, extra special, none like it in the entire world, rules be damned!
Mssrs. Van Dyke and Kent were unavailable for comments.
Make way world, Missy Vanessa VanDyke is coming!
Why she could be one of Obama's daughters!
...waiting for the race card to be thrown down.
That is a nasty looking mess.
Don’t understand why anyone would want their head to look like that, but I don’t see any way they can stop it.
LOL! I remember that, from the 1970s.
This is an article from yahoo - take it with a major grain of salt. I’m betting there is much more to the story than being reported.
The converse of that scenario is that once the school starts accepting vouchers from the taxpayers, the school may have to obey the state's rules.
Perhaps a magnate for lice.
I'm guessing the parents threatened action against the school if they did not stop the teasing over her hair, and the school decided "You know what? You guys are just too much trouble, and now you've given us a reason to tell you to go."
Private school, their rules. If they require groomed hair, it would be racist not to apply the rule equally.
My granddaughter & her friends wear their long hair in braids or ponytail to their private school simply as a helpful prevention against lice......yes, lice.
No matter how nice the school....this is Florida and lice seems to be more prevalent in warm, humid climates.-
My granddaughter prefers to wear her hair down and it is very long and lovely (& would be very full & heavy hanging down in her face) but she doesn't complain and complies with the school
Everything is not racist, even if this little girl has to wear her hair in braids.
In my opinion, this is just another dig at Christian schools and their policies....and the family of this little girl has decided they don't like the rules anymore.
Cut your hair or get out.
And this is coming from a guy who had hair in high school that makes this girl look like a Marine DI.
I have a mixed bag of thoughts here. On the one hand, we should all be free to do what we want with our hair. On the other hand, this is a private school with the right to make the rules, even if the rules change from one year to the next.
Now, as a woman I have to wonder why she thinks this style is flattering. Perhaps she hasn’t yet had that “OMG, what was I thinking” moment?
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/africanamerican-girl-faces-expulsion-over-natural-hair/-/1637132/23159400/-/ajs6jbz/-/index.html
Video (with Update)
School administrators told Local 6 in a statement on Tuesday, “we’re not asking her to put products in her hair or cut her hair. We’re asking her to style her hair within the guidelines according to the school handbook.”
Vanessa and her mother will be discussing her hairstyle over Thanksgiving as school is in recess until Monday.
A) Rhetorically, Is the school a sausage factory?
B) Is she using it to hide her stash?
C) Will Imus have a comment on this one?
Presumably this is a private, religious school and, apart from meeting legitimate state requirements (not federal) concerning substantive subjects, it should be a matter of choice by the parents which school a child attends and that choice can turn on matters of hairstyle if that is the parents’ preoccupation
It’s a private school, they make the rules. If the parents don’t like the rules, don’t send your kids there.
This girls hair did not get to this point over night!
Why was this not an issue half that hair ago?
Does the school have a written hair policy?
Geometry Student: I can’t see through her hair.
Tracy Turnblad: I can’t help it if he’s short.
Geometry Teacher: You’re ratted hair is preventing yet another student’s geometry education.
Tracy Turnblad: It’s feathered, not ratted.
Geometry Teacher: Whatever you call it, it’s a hair-don’t. You’ve been warned repeatedly. I want you to take a little walk down to the principle’s office. Let’s see what he has to say
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