In recent news reports I read about a four year old pre-kindergarten Texas boy who has been suspended from school for having long hair. Say what? Is this 1959 or 2009? I thought that the right of male students to wear long hair had been settled years ago. Indeed, when I was in high school in the 70s, I wore long hair with nary a comment from the school, as did my son when he was in school in the late 80s into the 90s.
Taylor Pugh, who attends school in Mesquite, Texas, was given in-school suspension because school officials say that his hair, which long on the front and sides, covering his earlobes and shirt collar, violates the school district’s dress code policies. According to the district dress code, boys’ hair must be kept out of the eyes and cannot extend below the bottom of earlobes or over the collar of a dress shirt.
On the website of the Mesquite Independent School District, it makes reference to its dress code by saying:
“students who dress and groom themselves neatly, and in an acceptable and appropriate manner, are more likely to become constructive members of the society in which we live.”
Oh, really? The Mesquite school district apparently has no problem with female students who wear long hair and do not believe that long hair on girls is inherently messy or ungroomed, nor does it doom them to being future societal losers. But it would seem as if they believe that the same hair length on a male student automatically turn the same hair into a dirty mess, not to mention marking such boys as future bums or even criminals.
The school district’s rule about male hair length has nothing to do with hygiene or safety issues, as if it did, the same rules would apply to both boys and girls. Requiring neat and clean hair for all students is a reasonable rule — requiring short hair for one sex only is blatant sexism.
So far as hair length determining character and being a “constructive member of society” goes:
You’ll note the ribbon behind his head for his ponytail!
Though a bit thin on top, it’s long in the back!
I don’t think anyone would deny that George Washington or Ben Franklin were contributing members of society, long hair and all.
Likewise, short hair is not an inherent indicator of good character or potential to contribute positively to society:
I’m sure this style would be acceptable to Mesquite schools!
The point is, that male hair length is no reliable indicator of character or potential to contribute to society in a positive manner. Hair length is simply a matter of personal preference, thus is an invalid thing to regulate when forming dress codes.
I’m not saying that dress codes in and of themselves are invalid, but they must be based on common-sense criteria that is applied equally to everyone and ideally be based on matters of safety and actual hygiene, rather than on matters of fashion.
In 1996, Bill Clinton made the following comment about school uniforms:
“I challenge all our schools to teach character education, to teach good values and good citizenship. And if it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms.”
While I don’t necessarily agree that clothing styles are necessarily linked to character, I do agree that rules pertaining to clothing are valid for employers especially and also for schools to a lesser degree. The reason I make the distinction between required/banned clothing and that of hair styles is that clothing is something that can be changed at the end of the day when the person is no longer at school/work. It’s not a permanent change, as people can wear what they prefer on their own time. And nowadays, rules about clothing are generally applied equally to both men and women, considering that women are now able to wear pants.
But hair length is a different matter. It’s a 24 hour a day thing. A male who prefers long hair can’t grow it back at the end of the day after school or work.
In conclusion, schools should have a single standard about students’ hair that applies to both boys and girls: that is be clean and neat, with no reference to length.
Thoughts?
libertine
I completely agree with you. In Wales, at least when I grew up, school uniforms existed only so that everybody would be on an even keel; it was more difficult to identify the poor students from the rich ones and so was a form of discouraging bullying and harassment based solely on background / looks.
I find this hair debate is much like wearing a tie / suit to a job where you never leave the office or deal with any clients. Jaco, for example, works as a web dev in a large financial firm in Cape Town. He spends his day in an office with the people he works with, and yet he is required to wear a shirt and tie – what he wears has absolutely no bearing on the job he does; the fact that he’s in a shirt and tie doesn’t mean that he’s going to be more productive, going to work harder, etc. – it just means that he’s going to be more uncomfortable, which would likely have the adverse effect than that intended.
As you say, a hairstyle isn’t something you can take off at the end of the day. It’s a part of you, and by no means dictates how you live your life. I used to dye my hair frequently when I was in the equivalent of high school – purple, blue, black – and yet I was one of the top students in my year and my teachers were pushing me to Oxford and Cambridge.
That’s just silly. We all had to wear school uniforms during communist rule of Poland but we never had any guidelines regarding hair and plenty of students had just as long hair as that little guy.
I think the issue of school uniforms is debatable at best. Although, I do agree that there needs to be a dress code within limits. But hair length?? At any rate, this is clearly sexual discrimination. If boys were allowed to wear pants and girls were required to wear skirts or dresses, there would be no end to the uproar. But I guess, in certain areas of the country, there is a negative value assigned to boys with long hair. Thankfully, we have laws against discrimination in publicly funded institutions. His mother should fight this all the way.