Today's lesson is on Life as a Serf

Interesting move in a state where "big government" (aka a red state) is frowned upon....Now we have the government deciding not only that we MUST buy insurance, what we can and cannot do with our bodies medically, but now - how we can style our hair???

Great way to spend tax payer dollars... I get rules around no displays of gang colors, or signs, etc. But subjective rules that allow administrators to punish whomever they think isn't using a "natural" hair color? What are they going to do, check her pubic hair and see if it matches her head?? I mean, this is going TOO far.

hmmm, I wonder who is so jealous of her, to tattle. After all she had it that way for a year.

I'd hafta bet there is something else going on, it is remarkable how petty people can be.

Just before my youngest daughter's 13th birthday she came to me and asked if she could cut her long beautiful blond hair - and not just a trim, no - she wanted a mohawk! I refused, I wouldn't even entertain the notion and stood my ground for about 2 days. Then I thought about it, and figured I would teach her a lesson. Growing her back would be a nightmare and she would never ask to do anything so ridiculous to her hair ever again! So to the barbershop we went, and I watched as her hair was cut, the sides of her head were shaved and the top was glued up into a mohawk.

The first day she went to school with her new style, I received a call from the principal asking if I knew about the hair cut. Um, yes, I took her to get it done. Her next question was, could I take her back to cut down the mohawk. No, I can't. I basically dared the principal to make an issue out of the haircut, thankfully she was smart and didn't pursue it any further. My kid, my kid's hair, and I make the rules in my house.

Six years later, my daughter now cuts her own hair, shaves out the sides, styles and colors it into some pretty wacky stuff, and has never regretted cutting off 14 inches of hair. She is now in the automotive tech program at the local junior college learning to be a grease monkey and I couldn't be more proud. She has always known who she is, and she stays true to herself. I realized a long time ago that you have to let kids find their place in this world and be who they are, not who we want them to be.

I'm sad that this girl and her parents backed down to the school officials. If more parents stood up for their kids, we wouldn't hear stories like this, and they could take some of the power away from these idiot administrators.

> If more parents stood up for their kids, we wouldn't hear stories like this, and they could take some of the power away from these idiot administrators.

I honestly don't understand why they don't. All of this student suspended shit would have me at the school with a lawyer beside me.

And where are the pro-bono legal groups to fight against zero tolerance nonsense in schools?

All of this student suspended shit would have me at the school with a lawyer beside me.

I'd be dragging the principle out of his/her office by the scruff of their neck, and I'd ask the school resource officer to point me in the direction of the nearest woodshed...

Only thing I'd need a lawyer for would be to get me out on bail.

Define "natural" color

A color that appears in nature? A color the "loos natural" on a person or the personas natural hair color?

Cause I'm betting the blondes with black eyebrows werent sent home, nor were the girls with black hair and blodne eyebrows

Not surprising in Texas. I remember in high school when some of the guys wore skirts to school to protest that shorts were banned but not short skirts. The principal came on the PA and said "will those BOYS who think they are GIRLS get down to the principal's office NOW." One of them was the quarterback. He caught a ton of shit from the coach. Good times.

That red color the girl dyed it is really popular among Hispanic girls, the really young ones.

I think it has something to do with the 50s.

It's a pain in the ass color, really hard to remove. As our host here will tell you redheads are the hardest to dye to something else.

I have dark brown hair naturally and I can "lift" the color to something else. And blondes can always go darker.

But redheads? You need motherfucking sorcery for that.

If I had a child at this point they would be home schooled or something along those lines.

Punishing a straight A student for hair color.

Lesson learned -- but not the one they wanted to teach.

I can just see a bunch of school administrators walking around with Pantone cards to match students' hair to.

Not disagreeing with anything anyone's said so far, but one thing struck me: Why is it relevant to the news story that Miss Gonzalez is a straight-A student? Would we be less sympathetic if she were merely average? Would her story even have made the news?

Does this principal even remember that the Elysian Fields were the ancient Greek version of Heaven? Sounds more like Tartarus to me...

If I had a child at this point they would be home schooled or something along those lines.

That's the silver lining here. If this sort of horse**** gets kids out of public school and into homeschooling, well and good.

I wonder what this school would have done with my high school classmate (in the mid-60's) who dyed her hair a different color every year. Her natural color was a mousy brown (which I only knew because she didn't dye it in junior high), but she alternated between jet black and platinum blonde.

Three hair regrets from high school:

1) not going platinum in the ninth grade
2) not shaving it all off in the tenth grade
3) the perms

Girls and hair. Anyone who works with adolescent girls, or who once was one, should know better.

I don't want Amy to think I don't read these threads. But sometimes, I so totally agree with Amy's comments and the comments that posters have made, I feel I have nothing to add.

Administrators, get fucking lives. Do you have more pressing issues than the tyrannizing of prepubescent girls? Surely, the demands of keeping our public schools competitive with the rest of the world would give you much more relevant tasks.

"Why is it relevant to the news story that Miss Gonzalez is a straight-A student? Would we be less sympathetic if she were merely average?"

Good observation! I see your point and agree that the color of a student's hair should be a protected personal liberty regardless of academic performance "meriting" that this liberty not be infringed upon.

However, I believe the underlying motivation behind mentioning this detail is to refute the tired stereotype that interesting hair colors are only desired and worn by problematic and troublemaking criminals-to-be.

By noting the girl's academic achievement, the point is made that the girl doesn't seem to otherwise buck the system in damaging ways - or, in fact, any way we know of that should actually get the attention of these brain-damaged louts.

This is incredibly stupid. It's hair. It grows back. Who cares? Let the kid dye it whatever color she wants and STFU.

One more lost battle to the Nanny State.

Is this the hair they made her change?

http://ksla.images.worldnow.com/images/24543368_BG1.jpg (from the article that was linked to)

Her hair was beautiful!

One of my grandfathers, one of my uncles, two of my aunts, my brother-by-adoption, and several cousins had or have hair that color... naturally!

Devin said that after she attempted to change the color the first time the principal told her it still wasn't acceptable and had to be darker brown. Is that based on some racist stereotype of what a Hispanic girl is supposed to look like?

Another example of a "professional educator" who lacks the ethics, character and intelligence to teach kids... or any other humans.

It says "...she spent [Friday] at Signatures Salon getting her hair dyed in the hopes that her principal would lift her suspension."

Why? Why would Devin or her parents even want her to be in an institution where she would be subjected to such oppressive bullshit over the color of her hair, which was quite beautiful and nobody's business but her own? Being kicked out of such places is not punishment and misfortune; it's a blessing and an opportunity and freedom.

When a girl as attractive, talented and full of brains as she seems to be is separated from the real world and institutionalized inside one of those fenced-in government compounds euphemistically referred to as "a school", her time and opportunities are being wasted, and the real world, which is outside the fence, is being deprived of her talents and contributions.

Jerry: "All of this student suspended shit would have me at the school with a lawyer beside me."

I'm just the opposite. The reason I'd get a lawyer would be if they tried to make me send my kid into such an oppressive institution.

Jim P: "If I had a child at this point they would be home schooled or something along those lines."

Amen! Even better if parents would never put their kids into such schools, and keep such bullshit from ever becoming part of their experience.

I had green hair in High School. It was the '90s, and it was a school for the arts. I was not out of place. I dyed it fun colors through my Junior year of college, and then senior year I dyed it dark brown for the upcoming interviews.

Your teen years are the years you can have with this sort of thing. Eventually you have to grow up and tone down, but why not let kids be kids and have a bit of whimsy?

(1) Texas.
(2) School administrators.

These two are becoming the "dog bites man" of the news - just another day.

" Why is it relevant to the news story that Miss Gonzalez is a straight-A student?"

Are you eager to dismiss the idea of merit?

As it is, the public seems to buy the idea of treating the thug and the valedictorian the same, because, equality!

But they are NOT equals. You perform as this girl has, you should get rewards and awards, not harassment.

"Even delinquents should not be denied their free speech."

Whoops. IIRC, several court cases have been decided which determine the children in school do not in fact have the full protection of the First Amendment.
So far as "should" goes, not if it interferes with the conduct of classes.

"Natural color" means a color that exists for humans in nature. I feel bad for any woman trying to walk back from red hair. Red hair dye is the first to fade yet the hardest to get rid of. It took me multiple ash-brown dye jobs to get rid of mine (after my "Titanic" phase), and it was still auburn.

When a school starts enforcing a rule like this "out of nowhere," I assume they recently had to act on a more blatant case and therefore had to clean house to avoid the appearance of special treatment.

Elysian Fields's dress code is here, and it is super strict:

http://efisd.net/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3451/File/migration/High%20School/1314hshandbook.pdf

I wonder if she got four formal warnings (see page 32) before being suspended. I agree that the policy is overreaching, but I would point out that we don't know what her hair looked like on the day the principal objected. It looks she had some red hair extensions in the mix at some point and took them out.

Everyone gets upset when students are sent home for dress-code violations, but I don't know how else a school can enforce them. You might as well say that schools should not have dress codes, period.

So the a girl could dye her hair a light green as chlorine from pools causes that effect naturally? Right?

Again. What about the blonds with black eyebrows? Thaats not their 'natural' color

Also

"Elysian Fields's dress code is here, and it is super strict:"

The district’s dress code is established to teach grooming and hygiene, prevent disruption, and
minimize safety hazards. Students and parents may determine a student’s personal dress and
grooming standards, provided that they comply with the following:
If the principal determines that a student’s grooming or clothing violates the school’s dress code,
the student will be given an opportunity to correct the problem before school. If not corrected,
the student will be assigned to in-school suspension for the remainder of the day, until the
problem is corrected, or until a parent or designee brings an acceptable change of clothing to the
school. Repeated offenses may result in more serious disciplinary action in accordance with the
Student Code of Conduct.
The high school administration and faculty shall have the right to appraise any current fashion or
fad and determine whether it is appropriate or inappropriate for school wear. The EFHS dress
code is in effect for all school related functions and all extra or co curricular activities.

No it inst strict at all, its entirely arbitrary and subject to the whims of administrators. No objective standards at all, nothing but whatever the principle finds appropriate in any given moment.

It's not entirely arbitrary, lujlp. You cut and pasted selectively. It has very specific "don'ts" for hairstyles.

Rockabilly/fire-engine red is not a "natural" hair color by any definition. See the predominant image at the beginning of the story. Her hair appears to have been color-stripped and then dyed RED. Prior to April 2013 her hair was brown and blonde, and no one objected.

If you think hair-color rules are ridiculous, then fine, I mostly agree with you, but don't say that her case is iffy. It's not. This is a fake hair color:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=669458609746716&set=a.166432406716008.44303.100000477502052&type=3&theater

So is blonde on a woman with black eyebrows, and so is black on a woman with brown eyebrows. Any of them getting suspended?

That photo is overexposed, which changes the color. Look at the link posted by Ken R at January 30, 2014 10:45 PM. That is a natural-looking color. Since I grew up in a town with plenty of Irish and Swedish kids, I've seen far more garish shades occur purely by genetics + sun bleaching.

"...Age can be an important factor in First Amendment cases. Speech that is appropriate for a 17-year-old certainly may not be appropriate for a 7-year-old."

And you've just made my point.

High school papers around the nation have successfully been censored by schools, which are public agencies, and those restrictions have survived court challenges.

"Texas School Administrator" needs its own Reddit and Twitter feed, like @_FloridaMan.