[grundle]

The school is very, very, very wrong to be doing this. Shame on them.

[Little Pig]

There were kids in my high school back in the 80s with hair like that. Several of them. No problems reported.

It would be one thing if her hair were bright pink, or shaped into 6” spikes. Threatening her over that hairstyle is beyond intolerant. Were I the parent, I’d inform the school that I expected to see every girl there cut their hair short as well, or they’d be hearing from a lawyer. Just because her hair doesn’t lay utterly flat (i.e. like a caucasian or asian’s would) is no reason to demand it be cut or else.

[arthurus]

The school is being silly, at best, but it is not a public school. They can have whatever standards they choose. Were it a public school then there is room for complaint by taxpayers and inmates. It is a private school. If hair style is the parents’ primary educational value for their child then they should homeschool her or dump her into public school.

[JoeDetweiler]

As long as she keeps it washed.....I don’t see a problem.

[lucky american]

I expected to see a girl with pink spiked hair or worse., rattails, dreadlocks,
She is not a distraction and shouldn’t be chastised.

[Hardraade]

Honors student?

Of course she must be expelled. There are future low-info voters who need the place.

[tuffydoodle]

It’s a private school, they make the rules. If the parents don’t like the rules, don’t send your kids there.

[Eagles6]

I would guess because it looks unkempt to the extreme.

[lee martell]

I think the young lady need to snap a rubber band around that Big Ol’ Tumbleweed, or braid it up nicely, then get on with her schoolwork! Chop-Chop! The hair is a big frizzy, shapeless mess. I’m sorry, but it looks unkempt, and she is being indulgent. If she gets away with this ‘style’ by the time you can say Rasta-Farian’, somebody will come to school wearing those thick dusty dredlocks. Private Schools can have standards (for now, at least). You are free to go elsewhere. The girl is making the whole thing about her, and Mom is playing right into the Drama. This could be one of her first lessons about knowing when to conform and get on with the job at hand.

[nathanbedford]

It seems to me that we are observing an object lesson for vouchers.

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.

When children are forced into a government school, we must turn ourselves into pretzels protecting the civil rights of the children and balancing those rights against the need to educate without distraction. Generally, the distraction comes from other students or their parents reacting. Often the decision goes to an unelected bureaucrat who administers the school and comes down like a fascist against a distraction so the First Amendment rights, indeed the rights contained in the bill of rights, are sacrificed to the homogenization requirements of educrats.

Under a voucher program, the students are presumably among compatible colleagues and when they find they are not they go find a school which is more congenial.

[sargon]

As much as I am against such silliness, it is a fact that private schools are entitled to enforce dress codes, such as (for boys, anyway) having no hair hanging over their ears.

If they are somehow singling this girl out because of her wild hair, then that is wrong-headed, IMHO.

[Eagles6]

I would guess because it looks unkempt to the extreme.

[usmcobra]

private school their rules

[maddog55]

It’s a private school.. they can set the rules and you don’t have to send your kid there. It’s plain and simple.

[varon]

The school is very, very, very wrong to be doing this. Shame on them.

Tell that to the kid who sits behind her and can't see the blackboard...........

[fso301]

The school is wrong but that big mass of hair will block the view of students sitting behind her which creates its own form of distraction.

[Reaganez]

African school girls don't wear their hair like that. Why? Because they have standards. Shame on freepers for advocating lower or no standards. Unruly asymmetric hair is off putting to just about everyone of all races in just about every country in the world, the possible exception being a few tiny countries.

[Ramonne]

Why do these people pick a school, then try and do it “their way”? If the school finds her hair growth of 3 years has become a distraction she needs to move on to a more liberal, tolerant, accepting school. Everyone wants to be an exception these days. It all boils down to having no rules.

[Lion Den Dan]

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.

[Popman]

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..

[jimfree]

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.