7 year old kicked out of school for mohawk, page


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Topic started on 30-3-2006 @ 10:52 AM by BlueTileSpook
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Miller said the solution is easy for Dallas' parents. Tulia's dress code states: "Hair should be neat, clean and well-groomed. Style or color should not be extreme to the point of creating a distraction."

The boy's porcupine-like cut caused a distraction, principal Johnny Lara said.

"All the students were commenting and going on about the hairstyle," Lara said. "It was very visible."


I would think that this would be one of the school's least worries in a world filled with problems of guns and knives and drugs. But a MOHAWK?

It may not be my personal preference for me or my son, but it is just a haircut, something that will return to "normal" with time. I am sure that this haircut DID create some discussion amongst his classmates, but if left alone, I am sure that the "sensation" would have died down within a day or two and nothing would have come of it.

So now, with this kid kicked out of school for a 2nd time, isn't he more of a "distraction" than he was with the haircut? I think so.

His parents are now in danger of truancy charges, and if they don't shave his head or come up with a more suitable haircut, he could be held back a year for the haircut.

Man, what a load of hogwash.

JDub


reply posted on 13-4-2006 @ 09:27 AM by BlueTileSpook
Panzeroth -

That is a part of the story that wasn't covered - whether the parents knew the rules and disregarded them. My local school system here makes changes to the rules before each school year and then prints them in different types of media. The parents then receive at least one copy at the beginning of the school year when signing the kid(s) up for school. It is the parent's responsibility to make note of any new changes.

Nygdan -

I disagree that a 7 year old doesn't express himself. My youngest son who is 9 years old has picked out his own style of shoes for the last several years. I have the final say on what he gets (no thin tennis shoes in the wintertime, etc.), but just like the other day, we went shoe shopping and he chose "Keds" shoes because they are in-style at his school. He also has had a preference for the last two years for button-up shirts that have large designs on them like dragons or wolves. This, too, is considered in-style by his peers.

I don't really care much one way or the other because neither his shoes nor his shirts are pricey name-brand stuff, it is just the way that he likes to dress.

I do understand the point that was made earlier that the school may be a conservative school where such haircuts are not accepted at all.

I want order and respect in my children's schools, just in this case I think that school brought more attention to this situation by suspending the child twice and threatening to expel him than what it is worth over a simple haircut.

Cheers,

JDub


reply posted on 13-4-2006 @ 01:03 PM by BlueTileSpook
Nygdan -

No, it wasn't sensible, it was a reward.

My son started having emotional problems about three years ago when I got really sick, was spending alot of time in the hospital and he overheard my wife and my MIL talking that the docs didn't know if I was going to live or not. He shut down at home and at school.

We dealt with it the best we could the first year (1st grade) with me actually going to school part of the day with him to force him to participate in the work at school instead of sitting and playing with erasers all day. By the end of the year, he was starting to snap out of it. His grades were improving and his participation was up.

His personal goal was to get on the A-B honor roll, so we asked him what reward he wanted if he made it onto the honor roll. He said, "Mohawk." We pooh-pooh'ed the idea of a mohawk as I am relatively straight laced and the wife is too. None of his friends have had a mohawk, he doesn't watch the type of tv where he would see people with mohawks, so we didn't know where he got the idea and thought he would drop it relatively soon.

2nd grade year, he struggled and got his grades up to A's, B's and C's, but he couldn't seem to make the honor roll. We received his last grade card after he was out of school. A's and B's. He made the honor roll.

We asked him again, "what do you want as your reward?"

"Mohawk." After a year and a half, he still wanted the same thing.

So, at the beginning of this school year (3rd grade), we took him and got him what he wanted. We didn't do it specifically to coincide with the school year, but things weren't very good with my health that spring or summer so it was one of the things that got pushed back for a while.


Originally posted by Nygdan
Kids aren't just mindless things that parents dress, sure enough, but they don't fret and worry about social representation and having designer brands or about getting mohawks, and if the school tells them to cut it, they don't reflect upon the relative values of social rights and personal responsibilities, nor about the need to express one's self, even through a hairstyle, in order to make a personal statement about non-conformity.


No, he doesn't reflect about social rights and personal responsibilities. He thought it was a fun haircut, something different than he has ever had before. And it isn't about non-conformity. It was what he wanted as a reward for working his bottom off to get what he set as a goal - to be on the A-B honor roll.

With your statement about "designer brands" and such, either your school is very different or you don't have children in school. Money informally denotes "who" a person is here because most people don't have any in this area. My son is the one that points out the three or four kids in his class of 19 that have the money and come to school bragging about how many new video games his mom or dad bought for him the day before. He points out how many new shirts or types of shirts that the kid brags about on the playground. He sees these same kids on the balldiamond with the new glove, the new bat, the new gloves, the new helmet, the new cleats and then he asks me why I can't do the same for him.

But that is okay. It gives me an opportunity to explain to him that we don't have to have the newest, the best, the most expensive to be the person that we really are deep inside. A pair of Nike's won't make him any different than a pair of Ked's will, but that extra $40 that I saved on the Keds can go toward a field trip or clothes as he grows or just he and I doing something special.

He notices social things. He is aware of it. He understands (and oft forgets) that it is okay not to have the biggest and the best.

Our particular school does not have a policy in place like the school in Dallas does for their dress code. Yes, my wife took him and got him that particular haircut as a reward. It was not inflicted upon him, and it was a one-time thing. He loved the haircut while he had it, but when it grew out enough that we had to shave it again or cut his hair all the same length, we cut it all the same length. He looks back on it with fondness, but he hasn't asked for another mohawk.

Cheers,

JDub
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