Don't mess with this New Jersey school board

Dress codes that include the length of a kid's hair, yeah, that's not how we are supposed to do things here.....

 

Zag is right, just because it's a school rule does not make it right.

My School Board though it would be a good idea to pass rule that required all students to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I guess they didn't pay attention to the Supreme Court ruling from 20 years ago.

In my district you can also fire, by school rules if you are crazy enough, a pregnant unwed teacher because she is setting a bad example for her students. It's and antequated rule, but it's still a rule.

 

Oh, come on, 2MCM. Young children do need to be taught how to behave in a classroom and a huge part of that is teaching them how to follow rules. Having mommy and daddy go to war to opppose one of those rules teaches junior that rules don't apply to him. And if you don't think a little kid's mind works that way, go spend some time watching a pre-school or Kindergarden class.

I don't care for dress codes either, but that is no longer the point. The parents just want to do what they damn well please no matter how disruptive it becomes.

 

Why are all of the kids who get suspended for having long hair live in trailer parks?

By the way, the hair is not that long. Any girls with hair that long should be suspended as well.

 

Listening and not talking when the teacher is speaking is part of a productive learning environment.

I cannot see an arguement where a student said they could not learn because John had long hair or had a tat on his arm.

And tats do not affect the play of a game. If the tats promoted gangs, guns and violence, though, that would be grounds for covering.

 

Your dress codes are aimed at gangs, I think. Unless this kid's gang was The House of David traveling baseball team, I do not see the need for the code.

Answer me this...
Create a dress code for girls showing too much cleavage. Write that one up, and then have a male teacher admit to looking at girls' tits to enforce it.

A lot of being a good school administrator is using a little common sense.

 

What does any of that have to do with hair length? And what does hair length have to do with the ability to get a good education?

 

It also teaches junior that if you feel that a rule is wrong, you protest, you speak up, you try any legal method to have the rule overturned.

As someone who once was screamed at, embarrassed,humiliated by his fifth-grade teacher in front of the whole class because I didn't say the Pledge of Allegiance loud enough for her to hear (Not like many kids nowadays, who don't say it at all. I just wasn't loud enough for her satisfaction and made to say the Pledge again by myself in front of the whole class), I know what can happen with blind obedience to the rules.

If my idiot teacher would have pulled that on my kids today, I'd be ready to sue at the drop of a hat.

 

Oh, it's a dumb rule, but the suggestion that these kids are being turned into good little drones by being asked to follow the rules is just ridiculous. Sure, question a rule you don't like. But taking it this far, I am concerned about the message it sends.

 

That is mistreatment rather than simple enforcement of a rule. Not a valid comparison.

 

At least the Texas kid doesn't have the nun that taught my mom. Some 8-year-old boy kept picking at his hair and wouldn't stop. So the nun made him wear a paper bag on his head for three days as a lesson.

"Whatever happened to the kid?" I asked my mom.

"I don't know. He dropped out and got into drugs, I'd heard."

Nooo, really?

 

It sends the message that if you don't like a rule, you take it to court and let the judge decide. That's what our legal system is for. To resolve disputes.

It reminds me of a story about a principal who was hired by a small town district in New Hampshire. Principal had some unusual, but harmless methods, but people objected and had him fired.

He sued, and the townspeople were angry that he was suing rather than just accepting their decision. He won, and turned the struggling school around.

Lawsuits, and the threat of them, keep the powerful honest.