Hairstyle keeps girl out of Whitefish High School

Kisteesha Lanegan says she simply was tired of her long, straight hair, so decided to try dreadlocks.

Whitefish Superintendent Jerry House says the sophomore knew the rule and made her choice, so officials had no option but to ask her to leave school until she got rid of the "outlandish" hairstyle.

"It's not really my hair," the 15-year-old Lanegan said from her home last week on a day when her peers were in class at Whitefish High School. "It's just the principle of the matter. They're trying to mold me into a person that I'm not. My hair is totally irrelevant to education at the school."

"We're here for education. That's our paramount duty," he said. "We're not here as a fashion store or fashion occasion. If you want to dress in an outlandish way in your own time, that's your business. That's not our business."

Lanegan, a C and D student who admits she does not particularly enjoy school but still wants to return, says she's as good as expelled.

"She was asked to go home and change her hair on opening day of school this year," House said. "She is welcome back any time when she changes her hair. She's chosen not to come back. We say, as a student she left campus, went home and chose not to return."

Today, two weeks past the 10-day absence limit that automatically drops a student from public school rolls, Lanegan officially is "not currently enrolled" at Whitefish High School.

While Kisteesha Lanegan's remaining high school career may come down to an issue of semantics, the underlying issues pit individual freedom of expression against a public school's right to set rules to accomplish its goals.

It started a year ago, a couple of weeks before the first day of her freshman year.

"I just thought it would be a cool thing to do," said Lanegan, who has been in Whitefish schools since third grade. "I was tired of how my hair had been forever, straight and highlighted, and if I'd kept it that way I'd have to curl it every day."

So she started twisting and rubbing segments of her hair until, two months later, it was matted enough for the dreadlocks to hold their form.

Teachers would ask her how she accomplished the look, she said, but none objected to the style.

None, at least, until two weeks before the end of the year. That's when she was called into Assistant Principal Kent Paulson's office.

"He told me ‘I have two things to talk to you about,’" she said. "‘One of them is that you can't wear your hat in the building.’" She wore a wool snow cap to school, and he had indeed told her to remove it several times.

"‘The second thing is dreadlocks,’" Paulson told her. "He told me I had to alter my hair in some way so it wasn't dreadlocked. I told him the only way I can do that is to cut my hair off, and he said, ‘I guess that's what you're going to have to do, then.’"

She asked Paulson why she had not been told earlier while it was still possible to remove the dreadlocks without shaving her head. They had been overlooked, he replied.

"How could he ask me to remove my cap and not notice my hair? Obviously, he had been paying some attention to me," she said.

Paulson also said another student's mother had seen Lanegan at prom last spring and reminded Paulson that her own son complied when told not to wear dreadlocks.

"I asked Mr. Paulson, ‘Why, what's the reasoning behind making me cut my dreadlocks?’" Lanegan said. "He told me it was an abnormality in that no one else had dreads and I couldn't. I said, ‘No one else wants to dread their hair.’ I also made the point that I'm still in school and I'm still learning. It doesn't have anything to do with school. How is this affecting it?"

House said the school is trying to prevent the potential ridicule, bullying and attention being drawn to a student with outlandish hair.

"We have standards, we have expectations," the superintendent said. "We're not singling out any one student. You set standards, you set your expectations for people to meet them and you do it for a reason. Our reason is that we're a learning institution, we're not a fashion school.

"We want all children when they come here to have the opportunity to learn with no distractions."

"Last spring, we allowed her to stay in school so she didn't have to shave her head," he said. "We didn't want to embarrass the child." At that time, he talked with her mother, PeTina Lanegan, to let her know Kisteesha would have to get rid of the dreadlocks before August.

"She thanked me and said certainly they could do something over the summer," House said. Later, PeTina Lanegan contacted House and board chair Linda Maetzold, who both told her the dreadlocks would have to go.

"What kind of bothered me about it is she knew this was the policy last year and had all summer to work with it. She knew it and didn't change it," House said.

Lanegan does not claim to be a star student but doesn't think she's a problem child, either.

In fifth and sixth grades, she said, she was the class clown who irritated teachers but drew no suspensions.

In eighth grade, she got her tongue pierced. Administrators told her it was against school policy and asked her to remove the barbell in her tongue. She had checked the handbook previously and found no specific prohibition on tongue piercing, so refused. The next day, she was put into two weeks of in-school suspension. A few days before suspension was over, she and her mother met with House and Kisteesha was released.

"My attitude really wasn't very good," Lanegan said. "I was offensive, I got really frustrated. But now everything's fine.

"I don't demand respect from teachers and administrators. I just pretty much go to class. I regularly attend class, but I did run up against the maximum absence limit at the end of last year."

She thought about Paulson's directive during the summer, and decided "if I cut my hair off I would be totally conforming to these totally ridiculous rules," and returned to school this fall with a full head of dreads.

Eight minutes into first period, she was called to Principal Dorothy Schmautz's office and soon left campus for home.

"I think it's ridiculous that they would deny me an education because of my hair," she said.

Beth Brenneman, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, tends to agree.

The Lanegans asked for the ACLU's help. In a letter to House, Brenneman cited the Montana Constitution's provision guaranteeing "equality of educational opportunity ... to each person of the state."

"This constitutional guarantee establishes a right to attend public school that the government cannot take away without an important or compelling reason to do so," she wrote.

After reviewing the handbook that the district mailed her, she focused on punishment outlined in the dress-code policy — ranging from a warning for first offense to one-day suspension for fourth offense.

"The school policy does not lend itself very well to some sort of status offense," she told the Inter Lake. "It never lists expulsion."

However, the ACLU litigation committee decided last week not to take on the case.

"Our decision to take or not take cases is based almost entirely on our resources," Brenneman said. She's the only attorney for the ACLU in Montana, and already has a full plate.

"It's an open question on whether the Constitution allows schools to dictate policy on appearance," she said. "There's not enough case law.

"Equality of educational opportunity is guaranteed to every person by the Montana Constitution. That is not in the U.S. Constitution. They have to have a good reason to deprive her of that access. Is her hair sufficient reason to deprive her?"

Whitefish school trustees revised the student handbook's dress code this summer.

A section that had read "Unnatural hair color and outlandish styles detract from the educational settings and will not be allowed," was altered to add "such as mohawks and dreadlocks" after "outlandish styles." The word "not" was changed to capital letters.

A copy of the revision was mailed to Lanegan shortly before school started Aug. 28.

"We really haven't added anything, with the exception of adding words to be specific," House said. "Were we targeting Kisteesha? Heck no. Were we targeting any other students? Heck no. We were not looking at any group, religious set, cultural set."

He cited the athletic training policy, also changed this summer, that now allows students to be near and to consume alcohol.

"A lot of our kids are waiters and waitresses in local restaurants," House said, "so being around that would be a problem to them.

"Also, some families have a tradition of having a glass of wine at Thanksgiving."

The next step for PeTina Lanegan is an appointment today with House. If they reach no solution, the case can be appealed to the Whitefish school board, then to County Superintendent Donna Maddux.

"We've talked to some lawyers," Kisteesha Lanegan said. "One of my mom's friends has a lawyer in Chicago, but that's expensive and we don't have much money to spend on a lawyer.

"I really don't know yet what to do at this point because we've tried so many things and they're all dead-ends. My mom is looking into home schooling now.

"I miss seeing all the people I used to see at school, and just having something to do and being there. I don't miss all the teachers and the system, but I do want to go back. I want them to say I can come back to school."

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com

A focus on educational benefits guides decisions regarding student appearance in Kalispell, Columbia Falls and Bigfork high schools.

• "What we look at is that whatever the student is doing has got to be appropriate for school and school activities," said Flathead High School Principal Callie Langohr. School policy, she said, requires that student behavior and appearance not be disruptive, distracting, harmful or incompatible with the school mission.

"We really try to work with students. We want students to be in school and enjoy coming to Flathead High School," she said. "We develop relationships with them so things like this aren't an issue."

She would not be concerned about a student with dreadlocks, she said, adding that similar situations have "not really" surfaced at the high school.

"We try to head problems off, look at students as individuals and see where they are in life," she said. "We don't overreact or underreact. We don't put ourselves in a position where this would be an issue.

"We are pretty tolerant. We want students to attend Flathead High School. We want them to feel good about being in school here and (have them) get in here and get the job done."

• In Columbia Falls, the student handbook says personal appearance of students is respected provided it does not interfere with health and safety of the student or others, nor materially interfere with the educational process.

There is no district policy specifically governing hair. A high school administrator did not want to comment on whether dreadlocks would cause concern.

The administrator said current fashion trends have been the biggest block to students cooperating with the dress code.

Students who refuse to adhere to the rules of appearance get an in-school detention for one lunch period. Further infractions bring more detention.

• Bigfork High School's policy on hairstyles "is pretty vague and open," principal Thom Peck said, and takes a hands-off approach, "as long as it doesn't distract from the educational setting."

"If it were something different as far as dyed or colored hair, or the way it was shaved, or dreadlocks," he said, "if we felt it was becoming an issue as far as denying the student (benefits) from the educational process," the school would take action.

Students, he said, could get a hard time from their peers who teased, left notes or put something on the student's car, making them "feel uncomfortable so that they couldn't reach their full potential."

It's never happened in his experience, Peck said. This is his first year at Bigfork, but he has been an assistant principal and teacher in other districts.

Clothing, however, has been an issue. Because students usually go home and change or put on the T-shirt the school offers, Peck said, it's never gotten to the point of expulsion.

Take your tax return from last year. Check the total amount you paid in state taxes. Then call the local school board and ask how much they spent per child last year. For the average parent, the amount spent will dwarf the total state tax paid, not to mention the percentage of that money that actually gets sent to education. So someone else's money is getting taken from them in order to pay for your child's education.That's the definition of a "handout."

Actually, it isn't.

Handout:

1 : a portion of food, clothing, or money given to or as if to a beggar
2 : a folder or circular of information for free distribution
3 : a prepared statement released to the news media

...said the idiot with a $300 suit.

But she is paying the piper and she isn't calling the tunes!

Nope. The government is. Because once the money gets taken from us, everyone in government thinks it is theirs, not ours. That's wrong, but it's also real.

Besides, since everyone is paying for a child's education, everyone gets a vote on how the money is spent (through the local school board, etc.). If you want complete control over the school, pay for it yourself.

Unless, of course, your position is that we should just abandon all those kids out of principle? Just give up on an entire generation?

Nope, I just want them to fight for their rights as individuals rather than get used to the cameras, the peeing in the cups, the "take off that t-shirt", the checking for the right panties, the no-tolerance expelling for aspirins and butter knives, and censoring of stories in school newspapers that are political statements about the school system itself, and all the other instances. I want them to grow up to be free Americans and to know that their government does not have complete power over them.

These things may sound dangerous to you since you work in the system, but its more dangerous to raise a generation of kids who are used to being ordered about by the government in their daily lives and daily personal decisions.

I'll never agree that this is not the most important thing so we might as well just part ways.

My father always said public education was a racket -- and that was when he was alive over 20 years ago. Today we have overly paid superintendents, too many administrators, "reading" specialists (WHY?), school psychologists, school social workers, guidance counselors, curriculum specialists -- everybody is at the trough -- and the system still doesn't work and you know what? It never will. All this talk about school reform will never amount to anything.

1 : a portion of food, clothing, or money given to or as if to a beggar

And that's exactly what's happening. Haven't you read any of the Supreme Court's justifications (*snort*) on why public education is a right? The primary one is that not everyone can afford a private education. So we are scattering educational pennies into the bowls of the masses...

You're right. Kids 30 years ago would never put up with the crap they put up with today. Today's kids are like sheep. My favorite quote from a homeschooling mother to the superintendent of her school district was: I homeschool because I don't want anyone to think they have control over my kid.

If you don't want the government schools to have control over your kid, don't send them there.

Publik Skooling is the educational equivalent of a Mafia Extortion Racket. ~~ Yep. So isn't it amazing how many people get upset when "Vinnie" starts to put conditions on his "loans"...? 161 posted on 9/25/02 7:27 PM Pacific by Charles H. (The_r0nin)

I think that all too many "conservatives" are okey-doke with Publik Skooling, as long as they get to be "Vinnie", and they get to set the conditions for the "Loans".

It never occurs to them that the Extortion Racket might be wrong in and of itself, so long as they're the ones collecting the Vig.

At any rate, I agree with whoever it was who posted this sentiment:

"The reality is, until my consistent votes to defund and rebuild the public education system are joined by enough other people to make it happen, the vast majority of kids will receive their education in public schools".

Until we Conservatives face the reality of "Gubmint Skooling as Extortion Racket", we're just a bunch of Thieves who are complaining about our cut of the Take.

I'll never agree that this is not the most important thing so we might as well just part ways.

That's because you've never had a kid look you in the eye and scream "F**k You!" simply because you asked him to be quiet, as the rest of the class can't hear you teaching over him talking. And, since education is a right, he CAN'T be expelled (especially not if he has one of the new, popular "disabilities"). So all of the other kids in the room can't get the education they want because the defiant kid is practicing your "Never let the man tell you what to do" philosophy. You have no clue, and your opinion is worth as much as a Democrat's view on integrity. In other words, neither of you know what you are talking about (but you'll be real proud of your opinion, anyway)...

At any rate, I agree with whoever it was who posted this sentiment:

Actually, I did...

Thanks.

In other words, neither of you know what you are talking about

I can tell that you are so jaded by the system that supressing kid's or parents rights because "some" are disruptive probably sounds good to you and probably doesn't even feel like an opression of those who are not part of the "some". Sort of like ignoring the 2nd Amendment for "all" citizens because "some" use guns for evil.

You may be educating kids to be able to do math or biology in a nice quiet orderly room but its pure worthless crap if they come out the other end as good little mindless drone workers without a concept of individual freedom and trained to conform to government wishes and obey quietly.

Good luck to you and your students.

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