Posted on 01/07/2011 12:47:20 PM PST by greatdefender
George Steinbrenner famously refused to let Yankees players compete with any facial hair, or "unruly" haircuts. While those relatively manic standards were applied to professionals (extremely highly compensated professionals, at that), a similar measure is now being used to keep an eighth grader off his junior high basketball team.
According to a number of sources, the Indianapolis Star and Associated Press chief among them, the parents of a Greensburg (Ind.) Community Junior High School student have filed a lawsuit against the district citing discrimination against their son, who was kicked off the team because his hairstyle violated a code of appearance established by Greensburg High coach Stacy Meyer, pictured above, which was stipulated in the school's extra-curricular code.
TheIndyChannel.com reported the lawsuit claims coaches told the player he wouldn't be allowed on the court if he failed to cut his hair by a certain date. When the 14-year-old questioned why that was necessary, he was also told that he would be kicked off the team if his parents -- Patrick and Melissa Hayden -- protested the policy.
(Excerpt) Read more at rivals.yahoo.com ...
If it doesn’t interfere with other players or pose any risk, who cares?
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You're right. Imho, there should be no rules for the game, either. It's hurtful for there to be a winner and a loser. I think this should also apply to war.
What do you think? I suspect we agree on this.
When I was in high school the dress codes were such that people would have heart attacks and brain anyurisms just to think about them.
And they were much more lenient that the decades previously.
Dress codes are good because they keep the little beasts modestly dressed. I remember driving by high school kids in the 80s and the girls looked no different than the prostitutes on Hotel Street.
The spoiled brat is you,,, demanding that he cut his hair.
Didn’t you learn anything from Footloose? Lynerd Skynerd? Jeeze!! And the painting of Christ in my church?? Guess that would have to get updated for you so the lord looks like a cross between a college halfback and a nazi-tank commander. Tow-headed buzz-cut be ok? (snicker)
Yup. And ask the spoiled brats to clean it up and you'll have Mommy and Daddy in a lawyers office. This is one of the things that's wrong with schools and kids today. They are taught at home that they don't HAVE to follow rules and order.
Buckwheat! Sorry,, no roundball for pooooor little Buckwheat either. Coach Stacy the Dweeb says so. Sad sad sad....
Bet you're a libertarian. No rules. We don't need no stinking order. We have RIGHTS!
You and people like you are what is wrong with kids and schools today. They are taught that rules don't apply to them. And if they don't like the rules Mommy and Daddy will find a lawyer so little Johnny doesn't get his feelings and self-esteem damaged.
This brat VOLUNTARILY joined a team and immediately demanded that it change to suit him. How liberal.
Oh how terrible it was before the hippies and the leftist radicals began to label any rule they didn't like as REPRESSIVE and now that they are in power (for years now) have plenty of RULES of their own it turns out. Lying hypocrites all.
Cry me a river over this kid's hair rights.
I hear that.
If it feels good, do it.
Of course, anyone who disagrees with their non-rules gets the book thrown at them...
This coach looks like a real P***y. I played high school thru low minor league baseball thru the late 70’s early 80’s when long hair was normal. Some players looked like bikers with fu manchus, beards and long hair. Every coach or manager I had who was concerned with hair was a loser. They were more concerned with how you looked than how you played. By the way what kind of a man has a name Stacy.
Our HS football coach didn't allow long hair or dread locks...they had to wear dress shirts and ties when they traveled. He was black so he didn't have a problem enforcing the rules.
He also had a good W-L record.
That’s cool. I think it instills a sense of pride in oneself and their school.
I think they like to “dress”...but prefer to be “made” rather than answer to some possible peer pressure.
I'm confident there was a handbook of rules, regulations and standards of behavior given to everyone on the team. Either this kid's parents didn't read this handbook or believed that the rules applied only to everyone else. Regardless, they're setting a poor example to their child. Sadly, it's not at all uncommon these days.
It's what's wrong with kids these days.
End of problem!
What's needed here is complete separation of school and state. Hairstyle matters would be handled privately between the parents and the **PRIVATE** school administrators. If the parents didn't like it, they could find a **PRIVATE** school more to their liking.
Cameron Smith writes: “Obviously, the player and his parents decided to fight for his rights rather than acquiesce to the extracurricular policy’s claim that a player’s hair be above his eyebrows, collars and ears.”
“Obviously???” Am I missing something here, other than the clueless myopia of the author? Why is it “obvious” that the player and his family would fight for his “rights” rather than comply with a rule? It would also help if Smith would specify exactly what “rights” were violated by the rule.
At my HS, a student’s hair could not touch his collar. That rule applied whether or not a student publicly represented the school in extracurricular activities. There was no more a “right” to longer hair than there was a “right” to show up at noon every day.
It doesn’t sound like this kid wants to be part of any team.
Agreed.
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Exactly. There's a saying regarding sports "There's no "I" in "team". "Narcissist", however, is another matter.
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