NEWS: Principal Forces Fifth Grader to Remove Cornrow Braids

I dont think the person in the picture is related to the story.

To be honest in my experience of corn rows i've never seen any like that.

They look more like how my hair looked before i had it dreadlocked when they had put it all in squares to make it easier to dread.

--Burgess

This is what typical cornrows look like:



About the picture with the story, I don't think there's any reason to believe that it's not the kid in question.

Zip

Well the kid wanted to look like the RedSox pitcher....

Google Images of pitcher

Anyways....why the Redsox?????

Go BRAVES!!!



[edit on 19/5/2005 by SportyMB]

About the picture with the story, I don't think there's any reason to believe that it's not the kid in question.

I stand corrected After a bit of a search i found article with that picture in

www.abc6.com...,%Y

Looks like the same story, could be a stock picture tho.

If it is him, then imo the teacher had more of a right to send him home. If they had been proper corn rows then that’s one thing, but he has just badly braded his (far to short) hair and put it in to squares. It's untidy, incomplete and imo would constitute being against a "dress code" as now doubt some where in there it says they have to look tidy and respectable. He looks neither tidy nor respectable.


[edit on 19-5-2005 by Burgess]

Says you! He's a fifth grader attempting to emulate his favourite pitcher hero before a big double-header. Give the kid a break if his hair isn't long enough to make better cornrows.

Damn, some people just can't stand to let kids be happy little kids.

Zip

EDIT: LOL at Enron's following post...

[edit on 19-5-2005 by Zipdot]

If it is him, then imo the teacher had more of a right to send him home. If they had been proper corn rows then that’s one thing, but he has just badly braded his (far to short) hair and put it in to squares. It's untidy, incomplete and imo would constitute being against a "dress code" as now doubt some where in there it says they have to look tidy and respectable. He looks neither tidy nor respectable.

What?!!

Do you know how many kids just roooooll out of bed and got to school with calicks pointing this way and that....Looking like a friggin thundercat....

Who gives a damn if it doesn't look like he put some effort into it....It's his hair...it's his haristyle....It's not going against school rules....Period

[edit on 5/19/2005 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

Not that it matters, but I don't think Arroyo has braids this year. That was last year's style for him. Manny Ramirez still walks around with a spider on his head, though.

I remember when Arroyo walked out to the mound with his new 'do. The announcer said "Man, that's frightening!"

It's these kinds of so-called "distractions" that lead to the idea that dress-codes are a good idea. They aren't. The public education system already tries to make us think alike, there's no reason to dress alike as well.
Trust me, if you can't focus enough to take an exam or pay attention in class because of cornrows in a fellow student's hair; then I you have bigger problems. It's not wild hair or questionable attire that cause problems in classrooms (in most cases), but rather a lack of overall disipline within the student body. Students lacking focus and disipline will be distracted by something. If you take that away, they find something else to distract them. It's no reason to take away freedom of self-expression. Freedom of expression should apply to everyone in my opinion. I feel the principal made an emotional decision in this case. "The principal demanded that the 10-year-old go to the bathroom immediately and remove his braids, saying it would disrupt classmates as they prepared to take a standardized test." That would suggest the principal just assumed it would. It's silly. I went to school with a guy who had a mohawk. I thought to myself, "Cool, a mohawk.", then went back to work.

Twitchy, that is my favortie part of the movie! Just the reference to the Nazis/Republicans and how anyone they don't like is to be shot. Great song part also, but the movie, oooohhhhh the movie.....

Anyways, what was the reason again? Distracting? What more distracting, cornrolls on a white kid or sending a kid home for having "black" hair.

I applaud the teacher. I'd get rid of baggy jeans ( I don't want to see your underwear, thank you very much) i-pods, PSP, cd players, smoking, soda, candy as well.

It s a school !!!! If you wnat to show how cool you are, go to the mall. on you rown time, feel free to wear your pants around your ankles, smoke pot, braid your hair, put pop rocks in your pepsi, jam out to music, whatever.

just not in school


oh yeah, and bring back uniforms to.

School is a place of learning, and a big lesson in life is the value of diversity. If Old Man Syrinx had his way, we wouldn't be granted our personal rights and freedoms until we were 18, right gramps?

Anyway, if you can't smoke pot during school then WHEN THE HELL CAN YOU SMOKE IT? Throw a dog a bone!

Zip

[edit on 19-5-2005 by Zipdot]

Originally posted by syrinx high priest
I applaud the teacher. I'd get rid of baggy jeans ( I don't want to see your underwear, thank you very much)
oh yeah, and bring back uniforms to.

You know something I don't think a lot of the styles today are great either -- but unless you have a dress code that specifically addresses issues of clothing, hair styles, accessories, etc. you can't pick out something that you don't like and punish that person.

My parents hated a lot of the things I wore but they also knew that it was just styles and that styles change. To this day I am happiest in clothes that are black and white or blue and white and I still gravitate to peasant style clothing -- all those things make my very conservative and color loving hubby cringe but he also knows that opposites attract or there would be no reason that we would still be together after 27 yrs of marriage and 7 years of being together before that.

I'm sure the kids parents cringed when he left knowing that he didn't even have good corn rows but a 10 yr olds interpretation of them - but I doubt they were concerned that he would adopt this as a style for life and that it would just blow over -- as it would have if the prinicipal hadn't made an issue of it. Besides I am sure they have learned that you have to pick your battles and this wasn't it until their child was humiliated.

I'm just thinking...If i showed up at work (I'm white) with corn rows tomorrow, not only would it cause a distraction and crowds around me wondering what i was doing...but the management would probably have something to say to me. If i showed up wearing a Burka (?), that would also draw stares and questioning.
I guess my point is the kid probably NEVER wore his hair like that before and caused a distraction. I'm basing this on his being white and going to school like that. If he's Afro-American, it shouldnt be such a shock to anyone. Either color, that principal needs to apologize.

Actually, I think you've gotten it backwards.

At some point, children need to learn about this innovation called "society". It's what happens when you have a number of individuals together in one place. At some point a child needs to understand there are things bigger than himself, his ideas, his dreams, his words. That there are times to follow the rules.

The rest, the diversity and freedom and everything else, he gets at home, on the TV and radio, and the other 18 hours of each day. Not to mention his peers and the mall and elsewhere on weekends.

Society is constructed of individuals with a common goal or ideal, working together. not spending every waking moment trying to separate themselves from it, or expecting to get more of everything than anyone else. It's not all about freedom, sometimes it's about *not* doing things as well.

Teaching self-centeredness and exalting personal ego is half of life. There must be balance-there is a place for conformity, for following the rules, for fitting in. Otherwise a person finds themselves woefully unprepared for life. Notice all the adults needing "therapy"? Nervous breakdowns over the smallest things? Because they were raised without adversity, and understand it only on a conscious level but not at the "gut". their personalities forged in the "it's all about me!" of today's Media culture, they're easily frightened, easily manipulated, easily controlled. Why a single attack on 9/11 allowed lawmakers on both sides to panic and push through dangerous legislation. Why junk environmental "science" allows the creation of international legislation that, in another age, would be properly identified as economic warfare. Why an entire people will demand normalcy and comfort at the cost of freedoms and intangible things like soul and pride.

Originally posted by Zipdot
School is a place of learning, and a big lesson in life is the value of diversity. If Old Man Syrinx had his way, we wouldn't be granted our personal rights and freedoms until we were 18, right gramps?

Anyway, if you can't smoke pot during school then WHEN THE HELL CAN YOU SMOKE IT? Throw a dog a bone!

Zip

[edit on 19-5-2005 by Zipdot]

I like your post, but I disagree with it in most aspects. Youth evaporates quickly and I don't think it should be burned up with uniforms and institutionalism. Of course a sense of normalcy and society should be instilled in the children, and it is, but academia is a realm of creativity, inspiration, learning, and growing.

I don't think school should be a phase when kids are constantly trying to "get the man off their back." They will have plenty of time for that after college.

Of course I believe in rules and discipline - these are absolutely essential to a developing human. Without discipline, there is no focus, and without focus, there is no direction, and life without direction breeds negativity.

I believe that the scholastic experience for young people should be open ended and accepting. Building. Positive. I think it should contain cornrows.

Zip

EDIT I misused a word.


[edit on 19-5-2005 by Zipdot]

The big question is...if this child was African American...would they make him take out the cornrows because it was distracting? I don't believe so, as there is no dress code, or hair code in that school. I believe they only did this because the child in question is white.

Originally posted by justme1640


You know something I don't think a lot of the styles today are great either -- but unless you have a dress code that specifically addresses issues of clothing, hair styles, accessories, etc. you can't pick out something that you don't like and punish that person.

I'm sure the kids parents cringed when he left knowing that he didn't even have good corn rows but a 10 yr olds interpretation of them - but I doubt they were concerned that he would adopt this as a style for life and that it would just blow over -- as it would have if the prinicipal hadn't made an issue of it. Besides I am sure they have learned that you have to pick your battles and this wasn't it until their child was humiliated.

Very well put. I especially like the "parents cringing" part. I know I've been there with my kids.

People shouldn't take life so seriously. Make a list of the 100 worst things that happened today, and see where cornrows on a fifth-grader ranks in that list.

You have voted justme1640 for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have two more votes this month.

what differance does a hairstyle make to learning? can it make you too stupid to learn? now if it was a huge afro or something that made it hard for students to see past, than i could see moveing the child to a seat where he would not infringe on anyone's ability to see. there is no call to make a person of ANY race or religion remove a hairdo that they may choose to wear. distraction my butt. the only distraction caused by it was the fuss that this moronic princible caused by trying to force their will on a student's choice of hairstyle.

as far as i'm concerned dress codes are totaly poiontless. in one of my elementery schools they tried to bring in a dress code. just because the princible did not like one student's dress, ripped jeans, jean jacket and concert shirts. i never understood what the problem was. it had no effect on the rest of us in the least. it was just what he liked, what was the problem? i didn't see one. if there was a problem then i would have been one of the ones affected as i was in his class. to be honest he was just another person. his dress had apsolutely no effect on me or any others in the class.

this is just another way to stifle independant thought. God forbid that any student suffer from an original idea or something. that could truely make a teacher's life hard now couldn't it? just imagin all the problems that independance causes to society. all those who may not go along with what the government tells them. guess it needs to be nipped in the bud as soon as possible. that way they won't be as likely to cause problems in the future. yet another way to try to controll how an individual thinks. so when are the thought pollice starting operations?

Jeez, it's the 21st century... Hairstyles change just like clothing styles, car design, etc. You may not like some of them, but there's no need to ban them. As far as I know cornrows have no hidden "message" behind them. I don't like the way the style looks myself, so I chose not to wear it. As for others...who cares?

If someone can get away with a hairstyle like this:

I don't think cornrows should be banned..

Uh...maybe it's just me...but I don't see ANYWHERE in the aritcle where the 10-year-old is black...and we're assuming the Principal is white...do you see where I'm going here?

Hey, if cornrows are good enough for Bo Derek...WORKS FOR ME!