Mesquite is one of the most backwards towns in the entire state of Texas and it's towns like this which are generally ruled by the atypical right-wing bible-thumping church going hypocrites that want to control the rest of us!
imagine the utter stupidity for suspending a small child over his hair length! how asinine!
Texas Parents Battle School Over Son's Long Locks
The 'Land of the Free', I understand.
Here's a follow-up news report made about a month later. Looks like no full victory for that poor kid though, but it's better than nothing, I guess :/ ......
Sincerely,
Yoshiki
My former optometrist had the same problem when he was in optometry school. The dress code stated that the hair couldn't touch the ears or the collar. So he put his hair in a bun and said to the school administrators that he was in compliance now because the hair wasn't touching the collar or the ears (this was back in 1972). Since they never specified specific length they couldn't make him cut it and from that point on, the students were allowed to grow their hair long.
Asinine does not begin to define the decision by that school board. It doesn't take absolute power, just any power in the hands of mental maladroits is enough to corrupt. My God!. I thought this issue was done and over with decades ago. It's public school. Those parents paid into that system and his hair should not be an issue. I dealt with this in the late 60s , in my high school, I was No#1 offender of the dress code, regarding hair. It was over the ears, eyes, and collar. I, and others, refused to abide by such draconian codes and it was in effect, abandoned. That was when School board members were still intelligent and free thinking. not hewing some political or church based line.
Since this is over 2 years old, I wonder if the is any update on either kid or school system.
Haven't actually heard anything lately, but here is something which y`all might want to look at.
I think it's an attempt to "Yuppify" children at an early age imho.
Mesquite school dress code
Reminds me when I was a senior in high school. Our dress code was every bit as bad or worse than the one listed here. In my school's defense, the year WAS 1970, though.
At any rate, it was a winter day and the bottom had dropped out of the temperature outside. This was in the day that a girl had better not even think of wearing anything but a dress. That was just the mindset. We were in first period and in walks Beverly, one of the prettiest girls in the senior class--and her mom had sent her to school in courderoy bell-bottoms. She wasn't in the classroom over ten minutes, until one of the head honchos came and got her and sent her home to change her clothes! Didn't matter if it was sub zero weather outside and the pants she'd come in were warm. The girl hadn't "followed the rules."
I told my mom about it when I got home. Her attitude was one of anger. She said something like, "Yeah, she can come in pants and they'll send her home because their so-called "rules" were violated, but if she comes back up there with a skirt so short it shows her ass, they won't say anything!!"
Same kind of mind set today--a total "because I said so" attitude. So go figure.
Steve
Hmmm,talk about a lack of style.Those rules do seem strict for a public school however if it were private I can possibly understand them wanting a bunch of clones roaming the corridors.lol.I did notice no mention of hair length but possibly that was on the next page.
Try this page.
Student Handbook and Code of Conduct
Try this link
page 11 of 44 under "Boys: Additional guidelines"
http://www.mesquiteisd.org/students/policies/CodeofConduct.pdf
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Ha Ha,oh that hair length rule is sooooooooo easy to beat if you don't mind
wearing your hair in a bun.lol.Yes, the bun comes to the rescue for that poor
moptopped kid who just wants to express himself and isn't hurting anyone with his
hair.I'd like to see them administrators find away around their own stupid rule in objecting to a bun.Cheers
Mark
here's another article you might want to read by some stupid columnist who takes the side of the school board.
look at what she compares his long hair to.
That woman columnist is simply an idiot the way she went off on the parents.At least reading some of the comments it's refreshing a few people do have a clue.In particular I like what Josh Watt said in support of the kid.True you can change out of a school uniform at the end of the day and wear what you like but with hair that ain't gonna happen.You can regrow a short haircut long again after you leave that prison school for the day.Some people should put their energies into real problems happening in this world.
Mark
I just corrected my error to "You can't regrow a short haircut long again after you leave that prison school for the day."That would take quite some time to do and by the time its long again your back in the prison school and then its cutting time again!Grrrrrrrrrrr!
agreed!
here is the school's website. you may want to email them and express your outrage
nothing has changed according to their site in regards to the dress code:
"Dress Code
School dress code has not changed at the elementary level. There is no official uniform in Mesquite for the elementary schools. See the MISD website or code of conduct for details before shopping or getting a haircut. Dress code will be strictly enforced to provide a stable environment for learning."
note: nothing in regards to girl's hair length is mentioned. can you imagine if the girls were required to get short haircuts? there would be a major riot!
Floyd Elementary
I really feel any letter from me would be pointless as these people aren't going to care about an opinion by someone who isn't even a resident of the township let alone the state.Also this particular issue happened well over a year ago but has there been any others who's kids got caught up in this unfair policy?Finally if its good for the guys then the girls should get scalped too!Only to be fair, you know, and to enhance the learning experience.LOL
here's some more info.
Parents reject Mesquite board's compromise on boy's hair
Happens a lot in rural parts of Texas. So much that it's scarcely news. It's enough to stop me from ever wanting to move to your state. Sorry.
It only takes a small percentage of idiotic bureaucrats to make the entire state of Texas and it's people look bad!
please do not judge all of us by the few bad examples.
I do hope you reconsider visiting our state. I think you'd probably like the Austin area best.
I'm amazed that in this time and age silly discrimination like this is still happening. After seeing the news item on Youtube I personally don't consider the boy has long hair. More like collar length. When I went to primary school ( for children between 5-12 years) in the 1970's this boys length of hair was the norm for boys in the school and this is the length that I wore my own hair when around the same age as this boy in Tex-ASS. This sort of petty shit is only confined to private non-governmental schools in Australia. Mainstream public schools have never sent any child home over hair length. If they tried our Australian laws against discrimination will come into force. In many ways America is a great country and in other ways not so great.
Duncan
I don't think of a situation like this as being one that makes me look bad at all. I'm happier with myself right now than I've ever been; that's partly because I've stopped listening to the naysayers and critics and have just done what I dang-well wanted to do as far as growing my hair out goes. The post in question here does indeed make the "because I said so" groups look as bad as they normally do. I do disagree with the idea that all Christians are long-hair haters. I've been saved and have had a personal relationship with Jesus since I was nine years old and I also am one of the biggest fans of long hair that I know of, as are several of my friends.
It is a sad thing about so many organizations, businesses, etc. that still try to impose a certain attitude, look, and/or style on the public at large. You would think that individuality would have made its mark a little stronger on the world as a whole, by now, wouldn't you?
Steve
Haven't these Bible thumpers heard of SAMSON?
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here regarding this. The United States is supposed to embrace free thinking and freedom of expression, but when people try to use that freedom they are put down for it. How is it that the Mesquite TX school district tries to stifle our God given American freedoms? That seems to me to be very narrow minded and is totally contrary to what America stands for. Shame on them.
Some overly conservative parts of society (most of whom are mindless robots, sheeple, that can't think for themselves) do try to make us look bad. Have you ever noticed that the villain in movies often has long hair? That is just one example. I am sure others here could come up with many more examples.
End of rant.
Scott
It's supposed to be. it was founded by freethinkers, but when you elect to give fascists power they abuse it and in their small minds they may have the intention to suppress freedom of expression of individuals by instilling rigid conformist rules, but utilize this type of indoctrination on young people and convince sheeple parents that a certain type of wardrobe and short hairstyle for males(notice nothing in regards to female hair is mentioned in the handbook) as the road to becoming "successful" in the U.S.
as for whether these people making these asinine rules are church going right-wingers or not, I cannot say.
I do think it's a combination of corporate fascism mixed in with some right-wing ideology behind all of this and I do think there is a definite agenda there and unless it's stopped soon it could consume not just the entire state of Texas, but the entire U.S as well and could spill over into the workplace.
The ultimate hypocrisy is that most Jesus images depict a hippy fellow complete with sometimes stringy long hair and whiskers. When was the last time Jesus took a bath?
When Jesus reappears looking like that, you can imagine the extreme confusion. In rural Texas he'll be summarily thrown into jail as dirty, trouble making riff-raff. Just like last time.
"On the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness" (Matthew 23:28)