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School Boards and their constant baffingly wars against student hair styles

Petty people attempting to exert control over others. It's common in many professions but teaching --particularly administration of schools -- is a hotbed of it. Things of no importance anywhere are held to be critically vital and any and all authoritarian abuses are permitted to keep control. There are prisons less ridiculous than the typical US public school.

My mind boggles at the insanity of how schools are run here, not just the pettiness but the illogic of things: punish students for missing school by making them not be in school. If a student is a minute late for class spend five minutes yelling at them then make them take twenty minutes to go to the office to get yelled at some more then return to class right as it ends. And in some places: enforced participation in state-sponsored loyalty prayer! Haircuts -- sex discriminated, of course! Dress codes --sex discriminated, of course! What have you got in your pocketses?!?! ARE YOU WEARING A HAT INDOORS!?!!?!!??!?!?!?!!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

There's a reason school is contrasted from "the real world": schools are unlike reality in so many ways. And it's all justified by hysterically shrieking "it's for the CHILDREN! We're keeping them SAFE!!!!" from hairstyles, having a single Tylenol capsule in their purse, exposing half an inch of shoulder if they're a girl, etc.

It's been [redacted] years since I graduated from US public schools and I'm still mad at how stupid they are.
 
I'm trying to understand what sort of school this is. Private, public or charter? It sounds like he has options and could go to another school. The school district is called "Barbers Hill Independent School District". What are they independent from? Are there two different school districts in Barbers Hill? A normal one and an "independent" one?

Some parents and children choose schools with strict dress codes and grooming codes on purpose. I don't believe in that myself, but some do. Usually such schools are not the "default" public school that most kids go to but something you choose instead of the regular public school.
 
nice to see that the south is till fighting the war against Hippieism and firmly believes medium or longer hair on men is some sign of disciplinary collapse. /s

School is already fighting a discrimination complaint against another black student over some tedious hair length enforcement. Good use of resources that definitely isn't some ******** pretext to be racist.

In 2020, Sandy Arnold, her son, DeAndre and fellow Barbers Hill Independent School District parent Cindy Bradford sued the school district, claiming the district’s grooming policies amounted to racial discrimination and violated the students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Both students wore loc hairstyles and had been asked to cut them to comply the district’s policy on hair length, CNN previously reported.

DeAndre Arnold was also told if he didn’t cut his locs, he would not be able to participate in his graduation ceremony. Instead of cutting his hair, Arnold transferred to another school district, CNN previously reported.

At the time the district’s Superintendent Greg Poole told CNN the policy was fully within the realms of the law.

“People want to call us racist, but we’re following the rules, the law of the land,” he said.

Later that year, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the district from enforcing its hair-length policy against Bradford’s son. That case is ongoing, according to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which represents the plaintiffs.
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Puppycow said:
I'm trying to understand what sort of school this is. Private, public or charter? It sounds like he has options and could go to another school. The school district is called "Barbers Hill Independent School District". What are they independent from? Are there two different school districts in Barbers Hill? A normal one and an "independent" one?

Some parents and children choose schools with strict dress codes and grooming codes on purpose. I don't believe in that myself, but some do. Usually such schools are not the "default" public school that most kids go to but something you choose instead of the regular public school.
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The school in question is a public school, the name is just a bit of oddity.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Petty people attempting to exert control over others. It's common in many professions but teaching --particularly administration of schools -- is a hotbed of it. Things of no importance anywhere are held to be critically vital and any and all authoritarian abuses are permitted to keep control. There are prisons less ridiculous than the typical US public school.

My mind boggles at the insanity of how schools are run here, not just the pettiness but the illogic of things: punish students for missing school by making them not be in school. If a student is a minute late for class spend five minutes yelling at them then make them take twenty minutes to go to the office to get yelled at some more then return to class right as it ends. And in some places: enforced participation in state-sponsored loyalty prayer! Haircuts -- sex discriminated, of course! Dress codes --sex discriminated, of course! What have you got in your pocketses?!?! ARE YOU WEARING A HAT INDOORS!?!!?!!??!?!?!?!!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
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School Boards it seems are the last vestige of utter absolute adherence to the stupid "Broken Window" Theorem of behavior, i.e. that the best way to stop big deviations in behavior from happening is to stop minor deviations the second you see them.

Which is, at best, a massively oversimplified way of looking at it and even that is being generous but it's further compounded by school boards to this day seemingly to be all headed by people who hold opinions about "juvenile delinquency" that would have been quaint and old fashion when I went to school almost 30 years ago.
 
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TragicMonkey said:
Petty people attempting to exert control over others. It's common in many professions but teaching --particularly administration of schools -- is a hotbed of it. Things of no importance anywhere are held to be critically vital and any and all authoritarian abuses are permitted to keep control. There are prisons less ridiculous than the typical US public school.

My mind boggles at the insanity of how schools are run here, not just the pettiness but the illogic of things: punish students for missing school by making them not be in school. If a student is a minute late for class spend five minutes yelling at them then make them take twenty minutes to go to the office to get yelled at some more then return to class right as it ends. And in some places: enforced participation in state-sponsored loyalty prayer! Haircuts -- sex discriminated, of course! Dress codes --sex discriminated, of course! What have you got in your pocketses?!?! ARE YOU WEARING A HAT INDOORS!?!!?!!??!?!?!?!!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

There's a reason school is contrasted from "the real world": schools are unlike reality in so many ways. And it's all justified by hysterically shrieking "it's for the CHILDREN! We're keeping them SAFE!!!!" from hairstyles, having a single Tylenol capsule in their purse, exposing half an inch of shoulder if they're a girl, etc.

It's been [redacted] years since I graduated from US public schools and I'm still mad at how stupid they are.
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Cannot overstate how much the American South has a boner for the military and their customs, including piddly little acts of petty tyranny like demanding boys have short hair. If these freaks had their way they'd be buzzing down every student's hair like it was the intake line at Parris Island.

Anyone who is not insane would never imagine that this level of control over the personal hygiene or appearance of students was something any authority should care about, but we're talking about school administrators, not reasonable people.

The public middle school I attended in South Carolina wasted tremendous amounts of time and effort disciplining students for this kind of nonsense, but fortunately the high school (in the same district) didn't care at all.

It's a bit funny because schools often justify this as necessary to prepare students for the rigors of having to live in the real world, but the reality is that outside a few very specific contexts (say, like joining the military), nobody has any interest in rigorously policing this kind of trivial crap.
 
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Also here is what is going to happen. Like within a metaphysical certainty.

Somone is going to go the rule is stupid.
The School Board is gonna go: "Well them's the rules."
Someone is going to go: "Well change the rules."
The School Board is gonna go: "Oh we can't. The rules can only be changed when the school board meets and the school board only meets on the 2nd Thursday of the Month after the Harvest when the Comet is the Southern Hemisphere..."
 
TurkeysGhost said:
nice to see that the south is till fighting the war against Hippieism and firmly believes medium or longer hair on men is some sign of disciplinary collapse. /s
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The especially funny part of that is that those who are most firm in their belief that long hair on men is bad are also the most likely to believe in Jesus and have iconography of him having long hair.

There's a famous meme which is a photo of a statue of Jesus on some Mormon college campus, beside the handbook for that college which states the dress code for men prohibits long hair and sandals, and requires trousers. Jesus, of course, is wearing long hair, sandals, and flowing robes. They'd have to give Jesus demerits if he attended their school.

eta: oh, and a beard, of course. Beards are bad, but Jesus usually has one.
 
JoeMorgue said:
Also here is what is going to happen. Like within a metaphysical certainty.

Somone is going to go the rule is stupid.
The School Board is gonna go: "Well them's the rules."
Someone is going to go: "Well change the rules."
The School Board is gonna go: "Oh we can't. The rules can only be changed when the school board meets and the school board only meets on the 2nd Thursday of the Month after the Harvest when the Comet is the Southern Hemisphere..."
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It's easy to be generous with other people's money.

School board is going to waste a decent chunk of change fighting this tooth and nail and seems much more likely than not they'll lose, coming out of this only alienating the non-insane population of the school district and pissing away a small fortune on totally pointless legal bills. A true win-win
 
TurkeysGhost said:
It's easy to be generous with other people's money.

School board is going to waste a decent chunk of change fighting this tooth and nail and seems much more likely than not they'll lose, coming out of this only alienating the non-insane population of the school district and pissing away a small fortune on totally pointless legal bills. A true win-win
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They'll spend oodles of cash on lawyers fighting this. Then lose, and get required to also pay the student's legal expenses. And maybe some civil damages.

Then they'll eliminate the art and music classes due to lack of funding. :rolleyes:
 
"sorry, kids. the only classes we can afford anymore are engine repair and Bible study."
 
Donal said:
"sorry, kids. the only classes we can afford anymore are engine repair and Bible study."
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Actually, funds are even tighter than that - now you'll have to pray your car doesn't break down.

It's never a surprise who ends up being discriminated against by codes such as those in the OP. Minorities, as usual. :mad:
 
Not for their cars. For commercial vehicles so they can be good little cogs in the machine.
 
Racism is generally a safe bet in this country. So is callous disregard for human life in the pursuit of profit, but I don't think that applies here.
 
TurkeysGhost said:
It's easy to be generous with other people's money.

School board is going to waste a decent chunk of change fighting this tooth and nail and seems much more likely than not they'll lose, coming out of this only alienating the non-insane population of the school district and pissing away a small fortune on totally pointless legal bills. A true win-win
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And in the end why?

I can see only two possible legitimate reasons for wanting to control kids to such a degree, hygiene or health and safety.
 
Darat said:
And in the end why?

I can see only two possible legitimate reasons for wanting to control kids to such a degree, hygiene or health and safety.
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"Distracting." That's always the buzzword excuse they fall back on. Or something like "Learning environment" which is the same thing.

Long hair, black hairstyles, girl's shoulders, these are all "distracting" according to them.
 
TragicMonkey said:
The especially funny part of that is that those who are most firm in their belief that long hair on men is bad are also the most likely to believe in Jesus and have iconography of him having long hair.

There's a famous meme which is a photo of a statue of Jesus on some Mormon college campus, beside the handbook for that college which states the dress code for men prohibits long hair and sandals, and requires trousers. Jesus, of course, is wearing long hair, sandals, and flowing robes. They'd have to give Jesus demerits if he attended their school.

eta: oh, and a beard, of course. Beards are bad, but Jesus usually has one.
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Long ago, I met some Midwestern evangelical Christians who were most adamant that Jesus not only had short hair, but was also clean shaved and wore trousers.

How do you even begin to reason with people like that?
 
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