Wake up! There are no “real issue” in this case. Even if the school was making all of the boys wear exactly the same haircut and cute little suits it would still not be “soul crushing”.
I doubt whether there are any people here who are bigger supporters of military personnel than my wife and I. She was recently presented with an award for her work honoring and supporting military personnel by Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Tempel Jr., and Command Sgt. Maj. Marshall L. Huffman who are currently the Western Regional Medical Corps Command Team... this is basically everything west of the Mississippi including Alaska and Hawaii. We spend a large percentage of our time honoring and helping military personnel.
The article was written in a way that makes it appear that the principal was taking some kind of anti-military stance by enforcing the district's policy against “extreme” haircuts. Similar dress code policies can be found at schools in other conservative communities that are supportive of the military. My wife and I both initially got worked up when we read the article.
After taking the time to find other articles written about the situation we realized that we were most definitely manipulated by the author of this piece. The first clue should have been the byline, “Why is it okay for public school officials to place totally unnecessary, soul-crushing restrictions on students?” When was the last time you heard a dress code described as “soul crushing”?
If continuing to make a mountain out of a mole hill helps make you and nearly everyone else here feel like they are supporting the military without actually doing anything... then go ahead and keep it up. Have you all forgotten that the military itself has the same kind of “soul crushing” dress codes for most personnel; they also have weight restrictions that a large percentage of civilians do not meet. My wife used to teach “fat boy” exercise and nutrition classes on base to help keep people from getting discharged. Maybe everyone here should be protesting that as well? This boys mother is not doing him any favors by making the kid feel like he is being victimized by the school. My wife's dad who was a combat veteran of WWII and Korea, and a drill sergeant during Vietnam would be laughing his butt off over this. The article was written to be inflammatory. It is a little shocking to me how easily we can be manipulated and worked up over a non-event such as this.