Teen ordered to fix haircut by school

Back when I was in HS if you wanted to make a real statement you gave yourself an authentic spiked mohawk and sported a Circle Jerks, Husker Du or Minor Threat T-shirt. Odds are if your hair was spiked up on picture day you would never make it into the year book. No one was ever expelled or placed into detention though.

I even recall a brief moment in Mc Hammer and Vanilla Ice history when people would sculpt hair and eyebrows. No big deal then.

Oh well, times change. This kids haircut is little distracting but I highly doubt that it is gang related. Just make him wear a red or blue bandanna to cover it .

Originally posted by nixie_nox
And in the career worlds, he would not be able to get a job with a star on his head.

Exactly why he should do things like that now, while he is still allowed to have fun and be different instead of when he is older and is just another conformist suit.

Umm don't you think kids should be able to dress and look how they want if they are going to be spending 6 hours a day in school?

They don't even have a choice on whether they go to school or not. They should atleast be given the choice to express themselves.

The way I dress I was pretty much forced to drop out in 10th grade, just because of how I looked. I would go to school and they would send me home

And like someone else said let the kids do it while they have a chance! Because they will find it is very hard to be who you want to be when you become an adult. I really don't like adults. They are very evil

I guess times are really changing. I remember being able to wear pretty much whatever I wanted. You were allowed to look as stupid as you wished. I just got a flashback, and am not pleased... Remember the 'grunge' look?

reply to post by Raustin


I was at at tattoo parlor getting a tattoo (yes, I'm inked--and btw in academia so woohoo you can have ink and have a job) when a teenager came in with her mother to get her first tattoo. She had this same symbol only smaller. My grizzled tattoo artist told the mother that it was a gang symbol and that he felt it would be immoral to put one on a teenager. When they left he looked at me and said, "I may be a dirtbag, but I'm not a scumbag."

So, I'm going with, yes, probably a gang symbol.

I also want to caution the Constitutionalists on here. We have a right to free speech, but public education is not a guaranteed right. It is a privilege just like our driver's permits. We must earn the privilege.

Now, it is definitely "terrible" that children cannot express themselves with pink or purple hair--or even cute stars etched in their do. However, it is not terrible like say...not having public funded education. Now, that would be a real crime to the people who could not afford private education.

I wore combat boots and had funny looking hair in school and they let me get away with it. One day a girl showed up in a trash bag with fake blood on it and a coat hanger around her neck to protest abortions. They sent her home. School may have a reason to allow a student to express themselves, but it is not the place to create something controversial which would distract from the classroom experience of others.

Gang symbol or not, a good few minutes of classroom time will go to kids becoming distracted and looking at the kid's head. If it is a gang symbol and the school allows that, they are giving an inch to a dangerous entity in their schools.

I guess in my rambling incoherent thoughts I am somehow trying to make the point that I agree with the school. The design is inappropriate for his head (something he can't see anyway--so what's the point of giving him something inspirational that he can't see without a four-way mirror?).

Originally posted by nixie_nox
...Things like that are distracting to students. ...

Students? More like distracting to teacher's "sensibilities".

And in the career worlds, he would not be able to get a job with a star on his head.

Yes, Mick Jagger, Samuel Jackson, Sid Vicious, Laurence Taylor... all these had problems "getting a job" with weird haircuts.

reply to post by Rintendo


I agree that certain things should definitely be kept out of the classroom, but a star shaved into someone's head? It looked completely innocent to me. Like I said, a star is one of the most common symbols in use. The thing that bothered me was that they could have suspended him, even if there was no real indication it was a gang symbol. Sorry Mom, school expelled me for my red shirt.

Originally posted by Raustin
reply to post by Rintendo

 

I agree that certain things should definitely be kept out of the classroom, but a star shaved into someone's head? It looked completely innocent to me. Like I said, a star is one of the most common symbols in use. The thing that bothered me was that they could have suspended him, even if there was no real indication it was a gang symbol. Sorry Mom, school expelled me for my red shirt.

Yes, but at the risk of sounding "old" heheh. I teach dead languages at a high school and the students and their world is so different than when I was in high school. Rage Against the Machine Tshirts were considered controversial then. Today, these kids face a world so much more violent and disruptive. Principles rarely suspend kids for their dress or hair unless there is a really valid reason for it. What may look harmless to you and I may not be harmless at all.

Schools cannot allow students to advocate drug use or gang violence. School is not the place for that. Children are there to learn: math, sciences, languages, history, government, etc. They are not there to party.

Moreover, the students of today grew up in a world of high speed video games and their attention spans are next to nil. Every little thing can be a distraction to the goal of learning these fundamentals.

Originally posted by Raustin
I understand the schools resistance to gang inspired clothing/symbols but this is getting a little stupid.

I agree with the school's decision. School is supposed to be a place to learn, not to stare at hair artwork. It's no wonder that our school system ranks so low. The kids are too busy having fashion contests to learn anything. On the other hand, as long as our schools keep turning out idiots, that's good job security for those of us already in the workforce.

Originally posted by Raustin
If I was to wear a Cowboys hat would I have to remove it?

You would if you went to my school. Hats were forbidden at my junior and senior high school. I graduated 15 years ago so things haven't changed too much.

Wonder what will happen if a gang decides to wear suits, white shirts and ties.

Oh hang on the mafia bosses wear those so does everyone in a suit belong to the Mafia.

Come you local youths - play the establishment at his own game.

Originally posted by puzzled2
Wonder what will happen if a gang decides to wear suits, white shirts and ties.

Oh hang on the mafia bosses wear those so does everyone in a suit belong to the Mafia.

Come you local youths - play the establishment at his own game.

If kids showed up at school wearing Armani suits I would seriously question them about it.

Unless they also had Russian accents. Then I would leave them alone.

This reminds me of this one time when I was at work I had a complaint or something and I had managers and stuff getting on my back about my hair. It's not like my hair was that bad, I took care of it, still do to this day, but because of one complaint from someone who couldn't even spell correctly and attacked me personally. So what if it's long and I'm male. I felt my rights had been highly violated, and I more or less got forced by various managers to get a haircut.

This really irritated me because they only listened to the voice (well, words) of one grammatically impaired idiot. Management didn't have my back at all, which I would have expected, but then they went all Nazi about my hair. I tried to put up with it for a whole month, and then I just gave in.

Eh, it was the worst job and made me discover what typical human nature is like, so I got fired and I'm the recluse I am today! Woooooo!

I think I actually need more information before I whine so much. I don't know the neighborhood, and I certainly don't know what the local gangs consider 'in' over there. I still maintain that schools are getting a little nit picky, and just don't want to see them expelling kids for dumb reasons.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Seems to me that those who do better in schools tend to get the better careers. And if they are smart enough, they can start their own business, and be the boss of that.

And many farmers, even tomato farmers, go to school so they can do business WELL and be ahead of the curve.

And if those schools, especially the colleges, don't want you, they don't have to take you.
Education is a privelage. Not a soapbox.

You need to make an income somehow. And no one is going to want to buy food from someone who doesn't care what they think they look like.
Then they must not care about their business or product.

The most fullfilled "slaves" I have ever met are the ones who CHOSE their own careers. And they didn't do it by shaving pretty haircuts into their heads. They were more worried about getting their homework done.And they wake up whistling every day thilled about going to the job of their choice.

The freedom in this country is that we get the career we choose. There are plenty of places that don't do even that.

Those who are miserable and slaves, are those who goofed off in school, worried more about clothes, didn't do so hot, and are now working McDs.


So stop whining about a petty freedom. There are places that a have a mandatory military enrollment when you get out of high school.

Or you only get to work if your a guy.

Gee, I wonder if they are worried about their hair cuts?

We are privelaged to have so many choices and opportunities.
hell, if it means gettin a full scholarship to the college of my choice, I would of worn neon plaid and shaved my head.

What if gangs started wearing Abercrombie clothes or stores like that. They going to ban those clothes too????

Stuff is crazy. Instead of using good judgement to decide if it is that bad they just get lazy and decide the same rules for anybody no matter what.

So basically in most school districts you have like a small group of kids that do bad stuff and then instead of dealing with those problems you make everybody pay for the mistakes of others. It starts with this but they keep finding new rules to imply or things to change.

My little brother is a sophmore at the Highschool I once attended some 5 years back.
They actually removed the digital clocks and installed older model clocks with the circle and the numbers and number hands because they though it would help the kids not be late to class. Like they would have to learn to tell time better.

They know when they are supposed to be in class..they just don't care !!! they are kids and they will be that way.

just an example but the way things are in life right now on earth bothers me for the mere fact that they could be different if 2% of the population wasn't in control of the other 98%.

[edit on 7-1-2009 by LucidDreamer85]

[edit on 7-1-2009 by LucidDreamer85]

Our education system is terrible yet they are worried that a kid has a star on his head. Who cares!! Let him have naked people on his head...i don't care. It's called individuality. It's called being who u are. If he wants to put a freakin' star in his head then so be it.

People are so anal and uptight about this kind of thing. This is why we have so many damn laws...people have to get bent out of shape over nothing.

Oh and just because someone has a star on his head doesn't mean he's in a gang. There are plenty of "gang bangers" who dress normally and i'm sure their fellow classmates know they are in a gang regardless of what they are wearing.

reply to post by numo16


Not really.

Adults can express themselves just as well outside of work as in. Sometimes people are surprised to see what their coworkers look like on the outside.

I had this nerdy coworker once, nice haircut, glasses, the accounting guy. Must of played WOW on the weekends. A blonde Clark Kent.One fri afternoon he came in to pick up his check and he had to talk to me a minute before I realized who he was. Spiked hair, earrings, black all over, sketchers, total skater goth type. Flipped me the hell out. Talk about jekyll and hyde. Never saw him the same way again.

If you can't figure out how to work around it, then you are not imaginative enough to be worthy of self expression.



[edit on 8-1-2009 by nixie_nox]

You want to know what I have to say to all the school's out in the world today... Learn to live with the fact that you will never stop us for doing what we do. If you take one of out of the system another one will take my place, and eventually you will come to find that it is because of you that the world is crappy because you only tought me how to find the bad in people and not the good.


SYMBOLS are just SYMBOLS, until you want them to mean something. So what I am saying is GET OVER IT.

reply to post by Raustin


This is a good thread, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's good to have something other than Gaza on the recent posts page.

In my school, even though we don't live in an area with many gangs and have a limited dress code, we're not allowed to wear:
bandanas
hats
headbands
and short shorts, tube tops, and camisoles, but those are worn anyway

I know that in areas with gangs, there is also a restriction on:
brightly dyed hair
facial jewelry
wristbands
belt styles

Man - reading this really takes me back...

Circa 1991 - went to a small little school in a small tiny town. There was one guy, Gary - who had long hair. And it wasn't even that long, but still - it "touched the bottom of his collar" and that was just INAPPROPRIATE for school.

They told him to cut it. Gary refused.

The adminstrators swore up and down the halls that his hair was a "distraction" from the learning environment.

Now this was a tiny high school of maybe 150 students. We all knew Gary, and no one really even payed attention to the length of his hair. No one cared, and we went about our scholarly duties.

Until the day our english teacher walked up behind Gary during class with a pair of scissors and *SNIP!*.

Talk about a distraction from the "learning experience"!

The entire student body was in an uproar over two inches of Gary's lost mullet for over TWO WEEKS.

**off topic, sorta - but simply had to share...***

ON TOPIC - If this school is really THAT CONCERNED with "gangs" and whatnot - why haven't they instituted a mandatory uniform policy yet?

Absolutely ridiculous in my opinion, but unfortunately nothing new in the ongoing mayhem that is the Public School System and some of it's "administrators".



[edit on 1/11/09 by GENERAL EYES]