Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Discussion Starter: School suspends student for mohawk

An Ohio school suspends student for mohawk, after two warnings. Its a short article, but it says a lot about how some parents parent.

Listen to this quote from the end of the article:

Rather than request a hearing to appeal the suspension, Barile (the mom) said she'll enroll him at another school. Changing the hairstyle is not an option, she said.

"It's something that he really likes," Barile said. "When people hear Mohawk, they think it's long, it's spiked, it's crazy looking, and it's really not."

"Changing the hairstyle is not an option." Strong words. Is she taking it too far? Did the school go too far? I wonder what the boy thinks about all of this.

Use this to start discussion on respecting authority, rules, conforming, being different, facing a problem, running away from problems, outer appearance

5 comments:

  1. "The school said the hair was a distraction for other students."

    Really? If somebody with weird hair keeps you from paying attention to the lecture, maybe the problem is that the teacher is boring.

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  2. there is no way the problem isn't with the hair. I think you missed the point :) hehe

    Notice, too, that the kid is only 6. Its not even like there is a lot of lecturing going on.

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  3. I googled a picture of the kid... the hair's not that outlandish. Makes me wonder what type of charter school it is.

    I'd tend to agree with the mom - "they can't tell me how I can cut his hair." It really is ridiculous that a kindergarten kid would get kicked out of school for any kind of haircut.

    That being said, we moved to a new town when my daughter was in kindergarten, forcing her to change schools. She would have done anything to stay in the same school.

    It really is a shame when adults use kids to fight each other.

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  4. @theoquest I thought I would do what you did (google to see this haircut) and agree with your thoughts. Unless he wore it completely spiked (looks like it could be a bit high when it has gel) or colored, its not that much different from a lot of other hairstyles.

    Like you said, my favorite (and I use that term loosely) part is the fact that this kid is 6 years old. Its not like he is doing it out of rebellion to the dress code, you would hope he isn't rebelling at 6.

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  5. I talked to a friend of mine at IPFW and she said that, when she was in high school, guys could have mohawks as long as they didn't spike them. (Meaning, wearing them flat and slicked back.)

    I think that's a fair compromise. To bad this school didn't just make a rule like that.

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