Tulsa school sends girl home over hair [dreads]

FOX 23 ^ | September 5, 2013

[kevcol]

administrator, Millard Jones told FOX23 that Terrance Parker was fully aware what was expected. However, for his young daughter, it just hurts.

"They didn't like my dreads," said Tiana.

FoX23 reviewed the school's dress code. It states, "hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable."

[Personal Responsibility]

The parents signed a contract with the school. The contract included dress code, including hairstyles right?

As I see it, they signed a contract that they either didnt read or didnt expect to be enforced. It got enforced and they complained to the media in search of 15 minutes of fame.

Screw them. Follow the rules.

[donmeaker]

One wonders what they would say to a shaved head.

Certainly not natural.

Ok, if there is a dress code that requires a certain reflectance from the face?

Dress codes can be fair, or unfair. Unfair dress codes should not be able to be enforced.

There can be some disagreement as to what is fair. Certainly the burden of proof would be on the person who accepted the dress code when they wanted to get in, but wants it changed once they attend.

[CrazyIvan]

I must remove myself from this jury having owned a 125 lb. Newfie mix who's entire coat would turn to dreadlocks if not given at least two hours a week upkeep.

[donmeaker]

Dress codes were the norm, but were often overturned because they were unfair.

[donmeaker]

I have a 107 lb daughter in the same situation.

[Johnny_cash]

"So they applied to be able to go to a CHARTER school, and get accepted, and then tell the school they won’t follow its rules?

Didn’t they know the rules when they applied to go there?"

Just like the idiots who apply at fast food places and Walmart then turn around and scream their a$$es off that they do not get paid enough!!!

Pure A$SHOLES!!

[GeronL]

If they are applied evenly it is not unfair

[fungoking]

The voucher school system is truly a free-market system in which the parents votes with their vouchers and a Democratic system is put in place and effectively policed by the consumers just as is the market for most services. The problem is the same people who think they know better about dreadlocks are terrified of the idea of the parents actually controlling their children’s education.

---

Be careful what you wish for. Most voters wouldn’t support vouchers being used for students to attend a Klan school, 0bama and the rest of the left don’t see any difference between that and a traditional Christian school that teaches that homosexuality is a sin and refuses to hire gay teachers. Using the federal voucher, the state would dictate to the school what it could and couldn’t teach or who it had to hire.

[mwilli20]

Very curly hair is extremely hard to manage. Dreadlocks are a style which allows one some measure of control over their hair. It also saves a lot of time in the morning.

Not saying I agree with the family’s methods, but the policy seems unreasonable to me.

[Wiser now]

The kids are likely going to be subject to questions of ‘taste’ in one way or another all of their lives. They may as well get used to it. It’s called growing up.

[Steve_Seattle]

I am also a bit conflicted about this story. I personally don’t have an issue with dreadlocks, BUT they are associated with the Rasta lifestyle which is in many ways antithetical to the goals of a modern school system. I would be more concerned about the philosophy of the parents than about the hair itself. Are the parents in fact committed to the goals of the school?

[JRandomFreeper]

You don't know much about dreadlocks, that's obvious. A dear friend has them, and they are clean and sanitary.

/johnny

[donmeaker]

Depends on what they are.

If they require blue jeans, and you are allergic to the die used in blue jeans, they might be unfair.

If they are written for and by people with straight hair, and forbid curly hair, that might be unfair.

Certainly faddish is open to wide interpretation.

Short dreds I don’t see would be a problem, but I don’t see most short hair styles as a problem. Long dreds could be a problem, but many long hair styles would be a problem.

Shaved heads might be considered faddish. A cancer survivor who lost his hair might look exactly the same, but for them we would feel (I hope) nothing but sympathy.

Dress codes are the classic example of form over substance.

[gdani]

No afros? That’s the most idiotic thing I’ve heard in some time.

[Veggie Todd]

Not the family’s fault. The rules were written in cursive.

[Sans-Culotte]

These stories always irritate me. There are moments in history where brave people have drawn a line in the sand (or a red line), and shouted "Give me liberty or give me death!"

IMO, a student being told to get a haircut or dress a specific way is not one of those moments.

[nathanbedford]

More to your point I think there would be real resistance to not only funding but even permitting Muslim schools which operate on traditional lines.

I don't agree that a state is without power to regulate the schools operating on a voucher system as to teacher qualifications and course content. Nor do I believe that the state would be prohibited from delisting the schools in the event the students fail certain test levels.

As a conservative with a pesky libertarian streak, my libertarian side wants the state to have no control over what a parent decides his child should be taught or the method. But by conservative practical side tells me that the culture, especially the African-American ghetto, has deteriorated to such a degree that those choices simply have to to be controlled for the good of the child, for the good of the culture, and for the good of the body politic.

[GeronL]

But by conservative practical side tells me that the culture, especially the African-American ghetto, has deteriorated to such a degree that those choices simply have to to be controlled for the good of the child, for the good of the culture, and for the good of the body politic.

It is controlled, by the radical left that is reinforcing all the bad behaviors.

[nathanbedford]

We are inclined to let the state impose questions of taste on our children when they enlist in the Marine Corps but we are not as the descendents of Concord and Lexington inclined to let the state control us in matters of personal taste in our everyday civilian lives.

There is nothing people like Mayor Bloomberg would like better than to literally control us in matters of taste-tastebuds that is. If we permit the state to intrude and tell us about our hairstyles as children what is to prevent them from dictating hairstyles to us as adults? Moreover, we would be less likely to resist these intrusions of the state because we will have "got used to it" as children.

God help us.

[Monterrosa-24]

“...The problem is the same people who think they know better about dreadlocks are terrified of the idea of the parents actually controlling their children...”

Smartly stated!