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Hey,
I'm 16 years old and i go to a high school in west texas called Water Valley high. The school policy won't let me grow my hair out past my collar. I think that is very unfair and unethical. Is there any thing i can do (besides go to the school board) to help out my situation?
You can start to write a petition get people to sign. If women can have long hair why cant men? I think you need like over 100 signatures. Go to the city ask them what information is needed to do a petition... LONG LIVE LONG HAIR!!!!
Don't bother with the signutures. Having your parents on your
side would help much more. You could have signatures from every
student in the school, it would not help. Been there, done that.
Hay dude if you got your folks on your side, More power to ya.
Or you can wait two years, until you are 18, and then you can do what you want.
He man... it's Texas, which might as well me the former Soviet Union. I don't think a petition or anything else is going to help you until you are out of school.
Hey dude, I'm having the same problems, although I'm in my last year of high school. If you want to get a head start on having long hair despite your school's rules, you can grow your hair to their limit or even a little longer if you keep it looking short. Just keep it as neat as you can, don't let any hair fly out where it shouldn't be, keep it combed,...etc. This will help keep the illusion that it is shorter than it is. Also, you can let the top grow out while keeping the sides and back trimmed to give the top time to catch up to the same level. This way when you get out of school and start growing freely, your hair will look much better, it'll be more even, and you'll be further along on your way to having long hair. Hope this advice from a fellow student in the same shoes helps. Good luck.
Jeremy sounds like he could be a client of mine, Chris. I have a men's grooming center in an area where conservatism is rampant in the school system. My student clientele get the encouragement and regimen from me that Jeremy wrote of in his response. And it works! Grow to the limit in the back and, by keeping the top slicked back, maximum length can be achieved there. Good luck!
Really unfortunate. What are your parent's feelings ? Would they be prepared to tackle the Board about it on your behalf ? Even though the Board rules they would have to listen to them at least. Doubt it's much good going any higher though.
It's not much consolation but you or your parents do have a right to insist on a written Statement from the School Board setting out in the fullest detail their official policy reasons. It's finding out what the unofficial policies are and by whom that's the hard bit. Turning the blind eye stuff....
The only other thing is to consider at this late stage a school where long hair is allowed ? If there is such a thing ?
Might it not be an idea whatever happens if you created a list of all schools that do allow long hair and all those that don't ? Then who knows student longhairs could soon outnumber all the shorthairs which has just gotta be good news !! And why not your money's just as good ?
Not much but HTH ? :-)
I find this interesting as I live in New Mexico, right next door to West Texas. Here in Santa Fe, almost half of all men have long hair, regardless of age. Here, it is not any big deal at all, but of course Santa Fe is unlike any other place in America. Of course, we all know about the horrors of Texas and always try to drive across it without getting out of the car! Well, they always claim to be "like a whole other country" in travel ads, and I guess that means they don't need to have basic rights for its citizens like the rest of the USA either.
Unfortunately, taking this issue to the school board will most likely take you beyond graduation to get anything out of it anyway, so I would grow it as long as you can (but still follow the rules) for now; it sounds like you only have a couple of years left anyway.
I really doubt they enforce that policy anymore. It sounds like a policy that was made quite a long time ago. I would just grow it out until someone says something about it and then deal with it then.
The more things change the more they stay the same. When i was
in school in the 60s, I had long hair and they complained.
My advice: strive to get good grades. If you are a straight A
student it is difficult for them to throw you out. Try to keep it
as neat as possible, if your parents are on your side it helps.
Above all, strive for good grades, avoid drugs, avoid getting into trouble for none hair issues, etc. In other words, outside of hair
related issues strive to be a model student.