Posted on 02/27/2008 4:56:15 AM PST by E Rocc
PARMA, Ohio -- A kindergarten student with a freshly spiked Mohawk haircut has been suspended by school authorities who said the hair was a distraction for other students.
Michelle Barile, the mother of 6-year-old Bryan Ruda, said nothing in the Parma Community School handbook prohibits the haircut, characterized by closely shaved sides with a strip of prominent hair on top.
"I understand they have a dress code. I understand he has a uniform. But this is total discrimination," she said. "They can't tell me how I can cut his hair."
An administrator at the suburban Cleveland charter school first warned Barile last fall that the haircut wasn't acceptable. The school later sent another warning to her reiterating the ban.
Mohawks violate the school's policy on being properly groomed, school Principal Linda Geyer said. Also, the school district's dress code doesn't mention Mohawks, but it does allow school officials to forbid anything that interferes with the conduct of education.
Ruda's hair became a disruption on Thursday when Ruda arrived freshly shorn, Geyer said. Administrators called Barile on Friday telling her to pick Ruda up from school.
"This was his third infraction," Geyer said Tuesday. "We felt that we were being extremely patient."
Rather than request a hearing to appeal the suspension, Barile said she'll enroll him at another school. Changing the hairstyle is not an option, she said.
"It's something that he really likes," Barile said. "When people hear Mohawk, they think it's long, it's spiked, it's crazy looking, and it's really not."
Better that they mindlessly cower those in authority over him, eh Commrade?
JHC, I think I'm a member of the wrong forum.
But it is the issue. Even if (as stated above) mohowks were not specifically noted, the fact that mom had to agree to or at a minimum acknowledge receipt of the Charter schools rules, regulations, etc. specific to attending the Charter school (including some sort of dress code and that the dress code, Charter school rules/regulations were subject to the intrepretation of the school’s administrator) she still received two (noted in the article) warning’s to adapt to the ruling (by getting the kid’s haircut). So on the third communication from the school she was given two reasonable options...cut the hair (comply) or remove the student (which she opted to). Her decision...it is a none-issue to me because the mom failed to recognize what was expected of her as a parent (and what was expected of her child) in the Charter school.
You think the little kid understands the principle involved? If I send my kids to a charter/private school, I expect them to follow the rules. I back up the teachers & administrators unless I have good reason not to.
I’m guessing Mom got the kid his haircut & somehow feels like she painted herself into a corner in the dispute. Rather than backdown in front of her kid, she’s going to move him to another school — presumably a less desireable one. Shoot-Self-in-Foot, if you ask me.
Johnny Damon cut his hair on joining the Yankees. The Yankees have always had a personal grooming rule, apparently.
Professional baseball players can basically do what they want unless the team puts it in their contract like the Yankees do. This is a charter school, so their is also a contract in operation — one that the parent agrees to.
I had no choice in my hair length when I was in high school, for crissakes. My parents made me chop down my Duran Duran mullett which was a painful cut.
As my posting name indicates, I was born and raised in Cleveland. Grew up on the west side of the city. Blue collar area-Catholic churches and bars. Went to Cleveland Public Schools. Graduated 30 years ago, before Judge Battisti and his magic busing plan ruined the school system.
The building of every school I attended was at least 40 years old at the time-one was 55 years old. Teachers would slap kids if they were out of line, and every junior high teacher had paddles for swatting. Not much in the way of frills, new books, etc but the teachers knew their stuff, and made sure that you did too.
The kids who were my closest friends from my graduating class have done OK-One’s a history professor, two are lawyers, two are doctors, there’s a dentist, and a civil engineer who is now vice-president at a worldwide firm. I could go on.
The girl I had a crush on all through school was the middle of 3 daughters. Their parents were “D.P’s” -displaced persons-WWII European war refugees, who came here with literally nothing. Oldest daughter became a hospital pharmacist. Youngest is a mechanical engineer with GE, who now has an MBA as well. Middle one became a hospital pharmacist, changed careers, became an art professor at a prestigious university in Boston. She’s a Fulbright scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow.
I spent 8 years in the Marines, appeared on Jeopardy, made the dean’s list when I went to college, and have a good job making (low) six figures—actually eight figures-2 of them are to the right of the decimal point : )
Imagine how much better we could have done if we had Mohawks.
Go to any place where the schools are now shot to hell-Detroit, Philly, etc., and grab a newspaper. In the obituaries, you’ll read about Drs, lawyers, executives, 80-90 years old, who went to those same schools when they were for learning, not for self-absorbed morons to strut their stuff.
PS A word for non-Clevelanders about the seemingly odd expressions that some folks have included in their posts. They are expressions made locally famous by Cleveland legend, the late great Ghoulardi, who was a horror movie host back in the day. His real name was Ernie Anderson—he’s father to Paul Thomas Anderson, the director. Ernie went on to LA and made a ton of $$$ doing voiceovers. There was a later version of Ghoulardi—The Ghoul. Good stuff.
Stay sick.
Turn Blue.
Oh my goodness.
Like I said, Zell Miller and spitballs.
You and a union teacher. Same thing. To quote Zell...
“That was a metaphor, wasn’t it?” Miller sneered, adding, “Do you know what a metaphor is?”
I hated it back in the late 1990s when teens were shaving their heads and looked like dirty tennis balls or Sinead O’Connor lookalikes. I wanted to shake the teens and say “you may all be bald in 10 years...enjoy your damned hair..don’t shave it off!”
The grooming rules for Yankee players started around the time George Steinbrenner became owner of the team, around 1974 or so. One of his first haircut orders was to Yankee Oscar Gamble, who had his Linc from Mod Squad afro cut down significantly.
I was born and raised in Brook Park!
Yeah, I think you’re right that the grooming rules date from the time George Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees. Former Yankee outfielder/firstbaseman Joe Pepitone is sometimes credited as the first guy to bring a hair drier into the clubhouse. That would have been BG — Before George.
You've put your finger on the legal aspect upon which these types of cases turn. Is a Charter School -- one that is at least partially funded by the private sector -- still a "public accomodation"? My guess is that as long as they take a nickel of public funds, the courts will make 100% of the rules where disputes arise.
That's my issue with this whole thing---the malleable standard. The story played out as it should have played out; the mother removed her son from the school. The earth will continue to spin about on its axis.
However, the grand issue you brought up---"if you agree to the rules, you stick by them"---wasn't really in play here, for there was no rule against mohawks with which to agree or disagree. The child and his mother broke the catch-all rule that said we reserve the right to make up rules as we go along---if you don't like it, tough.
And he also became a limp-wristed homosexual, just like anyone else who plays for the Yankees.
Do you realize you've compared people to both Nazis and Communists in the same thread. You're taking this way too personally. The mom was an idiot.
JHC, I think I'm a member of the wrong forum.
Nobody here will stop you from going out and getting a Mohawk.
“The vast majority make no big deal whatsoever about their hair - and just like it that way. It is not a distraction.”
Tell them to cut it and see how little of a deal it is to them.
I hate to break it to you, but if his hair is too much of a distraction, they’ve lost the kids already. I’ve said this too, and I’ve been on the side of not distracting, but this is egregious.
Really. think about it. Why don’t they regulate the breeze blowing the leaves outside? Why don’t they ban the sun shining in the sky. Get real.
>>Do you realize you’ve compared people to both Nazis and Communists in the same thread. You’re taking this way too personally.<<
Oh thank you!
When my oldest was back in elementary school (he is now out of college) there was a boy in his building that had lost his hair due to chemo therapy. The boy wore ball caps to cover his head (and the school encouraged others in his class to do the same so that he did not feel uncomfortable). The boys took it one step further. By the end of a week or two there was not a male child in that building that had hair left to cut. Trust me on this, kids actually do know what is important.
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