“Natural” Hair Color
8:51 pm 04/21/06
Over at my GreaterFalls site, I’m dealing with the issue of my daughter being sent home from school for having purple streaks in her hair. Not an isolated incident, apparently — there are several middle-schoolers each year who go through this. The argument from the school, of course, is that “un-natural” hair colors are (a) distracting, and (b) might be indicative of gang activity and/or membership. We might be headed to the School Board meeting on Monday evening to raise the issue, but in the meantime, I’d like to know if any of you folks have dealt with something like this in your community.
Have you talked to the super yet? And if you do go to the board meeting, make sure you are put on the agenda. If you are not on it they don’t have to listen to you.
I wish I’d been the kind of kid who had the cojones to express herself in that way. Whether or not she’s doing it to be one of the cool kids or not, I wish it was still okay for our young ‘uns to negotiate their lives themselves, sometimes.
God, I sound like an old hippie.
You must be mellowing in your old age, dude. If someone had told me my niece was sent home for having purple streaks in her hair, I would have automatically assumed it was one of the other sibs’ kids. I do NOT want to be present for the phone call after Dad hears about this….
Oh yes been there done that with the hair color or style/dress thing with my kids in school. I’ve always let my kids express themselves and have pretty much told the schools to f*** off with their policies regarding hair and dress. I told them that at least my kids were trying to be individuals and not some conformist Aeropastle wearing clones and if they are getting good grades and harming no one then it’s not an issue.
Distracting. That was the same line I got from my son’s principal in Oklahoma when I dyed his bangs blue.
“What?” I asked, “Did the bangs talk in class?”
I got the same ol’ song and dance about how the OTHER CHILDREN were distracted.
I told her that I couldn’t help the fact that other people’s children were SO EASILY led astray and as long as MY SON was getting straight A’s, they had not a leg to stand on with that line of argument.
I really HATE it when people try to quash such innocent displays of indivdiualism.
Go, D! Go gettem!
Flathead High School lets people do whatever they want to their hair except wear scarfs and I’m sure that if you do it creatively, you can get away with this one too. There was one girl in Whitefish who had dread locks (or something like that) and she thought about coming to FHS) and found that we had something wrong…. bah.
Personally I see nothing wrong with your daughter’s hair BUT chances are it’s going to be too late to change the policy for the next school year. Hm. I didn’t even know GF had gangs, it’s too damn windy there.
What’s more distracting: blue bangs, purple streaks, or a teacher going ballistic over a students’s hair that has been that way for a few days already?
I would, however, make sure the kids know that when they get into the so-called “real world,” employers can and in many cases will restrict such things.
So if we can get enough wind going, the gang problem will be solved?
I wonder if I could get my ex-Spanish teacher for promoting an unhealthy lifestyle by being fat?!?