Tim: It was a reference to a “risk”, something beyond the ordinary that, if we’re honest with ourselves, we expect someone to do in his youth. It was a risk that I didn’t take until I was in my 20’s. Maybe (or maybe not) it didn’t make life more enjoyable, but maybe it made one of life’s temptations more understandable. The point is obvious, to me, that we have to give kids opportunities to weigh decisions and to make choices. And before they do, we hope they clearly understand the rules. And we have to be even more hopeful that the rules are fair and reasonable and productive, that they don’t just reflect the wishes of a tired embittered administrator waiting around for his pension. My God, red hair! Who is to say that a good-looking blond isn’t more of an distraction/attraction!

Let’s see a girl with pink hair or a boy with half his butt sticking out of his oversized pants, which one should be banned? Right, the pink hair because it is really offensive!

Tim,
I think there are always opportunities to learn something. Looking in from the outside, I can only believe that the girl is being truthful when saying that she dyed her hair to honor her father. In that case she is making a sentimental gesture. The princpal could use this as an opportunity to draw a line between personal expression and insubordination. I think if he doesn’t at least try to learn, he has created his own no win situation.

Fair enough Ryan.

Point well taken jfmyon.

This comment is for Lenny

Why did you have to bring in politics into this conversation? We are talking about a girl’s hair color and school rules. But you slam Obama (calling him the Antichrist) and tout McCain getting them “military bearing” For Christ’s sake get a life. This isn’t about politics.

I understand this girl feels her hair color honors her father but the proper way to honor her father is to follow the rules and study hard to make something of herself. THAT would be a better way to honor her father. And where is this girl’s mother?

Good for her. The only ones down there b i t c h i n g are teachers and administrators. Thanks to teachers unions, they’ve been conditioned that as a group, they’re more important than students, their parents, etc. And SSK, comparing temporary pink hair to permament tattoos is a stretch. So is comparing temporary pink hair to getting a job. This is 2008, not 1978 - and I attended a well-known St. Louis county private school with a strict dress code PRIOR to ‘78. This 51 year old white bread fuddy duddy salutes this girl for standing tall!

I can’t believe that most people are supporting the actions of the kid and her mom and that some think that the administrator is the one with a lesson to learn. There was a time when if a child got in trouble at school, they also got in trouble at home. Not now. Now, parents would fight tooth and nail and sometimes even go to court to allow their kid to have their “rights.” What about the rights of the school to be able to enforce rules and have order so that some learning might be accomplished by those who quietly go to school to get an education? I guess any kind of discipline and order is too much to demand of today’s society, eh, because it is everyone’s right to see what they can get away with?

SSK.
I could not agree with you more. It was that way when I attended school and it may have been that way with you. Today, the schools have to now factor in “social justice”. They sonehow lost the authority to say not in my school you won’t and now have to face the rath of parents, politcal leaders and people who just like to start issues where they are not necessary.
If the schools could gain back that authority within their four walls for the 7 hours they house and teach our kids, we would see a large change in attitude with the students and their parents. I think those days are gone so issues of girls with pink hair and boys dressed inappropriatly etc.become the main focus of the day and will probably continue for here on out.

Thank you, Gina. I was beginning to think I was living in bizarro world where everything is backwards and wrong. Not everyone supports the kid and her mom, but most seem to and that is just strange to me. Whatever happened to simple obedience and following the rule of a higher authority simply because one is instructed to do so? I doubt this is just some arbitrary rule set in place for no reason. There is a reason, so why do people feel the need to buck authority and challenge the reason? Simply because they can? What does that teach our children?

Instead of getting in an uproar about the color of a girls hair, maybe the school administration should suspend girls who wear short shirts that show the girls belly or the low cut shirts that show the girls clevage. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the principals office, I’m sure the principal has flaws too.