Ryan, I’m a high school teacher and I so agree and understand your points about the real-life, far more important issues than pink hair, with my high schoolers. Teens are often uncomfortable with who they are, and tend to “try on” a number of personas to see what they are comfortable with. This may be the case with this twelve year-old, or it could be something else. I’m concerned about this girl, since often the outer physical expression of a teen seems to relate to some real inner turmoil. What is her homelife like? Where is Mom? Is there a male father-figure in her life who is making her feel valued and loved as a female? Or is the pink a cry for help, as extreme outer expression often is with many teens? I’d rather the administrators at her school look into these issues rather than hit the surface issue of the pink hair.

This is just another example of school administration on a power play. The girl wasn’t tring to make a selfish fashion play. She was doimg it inhonor of her father who died of cancer and pink is the color for cancer remembrance.

You know, it just occured to me, we are taking this girl’s word for the reason behind her hair color. Maybe she just wanted to dye it something unusual and knew pink had a built in excuse…

Food for thought.

Forgot to add something in my last post.

Let’s not forget that the administrators in these schools are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. There are plenty of times when kids get away with something like rainbow-colored hair and the other side of the coin complains about it. Only that hardly ever makes the news. It’s only when someone screams about their “rights” that the TV and newspaper folks come running. Think about it, if you had to enforce dress code and other school rules, would you go by the book or be lenient? Not an easy decision by any means, especially when we are talking your career here. The girl will get suspended for a day or two and be back in school. The superintendent could get fired which will follow him for the rest of his career.

Both sides make good points here, and there is no wrong opinion. All I am saying is not be so quick to judge this guy, or the girl for that matter, until you really think about all the consequences that could happen if you were coloring your hair before school or you had to make a decision about the student with that hair…

Not having “unique” colored hair isn’t in their school’s rules- a decision casually made by officials can’t fairly be enforced like this.

When I was in Paris this February, during my week there, I saw a handful of middle-aged women here and there walking down the Champs-Elysees clad in designer clothes with streaks of dark blue or purple in their hair. They were tasteful looking, trendy, and happy. No one cared about their hair.

If you don’t like pink hair, don’t dye your hair pink. By the way, how is pink hair different from a lot of the trendier dye jobs here in the U.S., where chicks have dyed black hair with chunky bleach-blonde streaks all through it? Yikes, right? Black and blonde are “normal” colors… but they sure as heck don’t naturally occur like that… what about the orange-red dye jobs with platinum bleached patterns all through them?

Don’t be so uptight- worry about the issues that deserve it.

Oh my word! Well I have to say that pink hair is not the issue! The issue is an arbitrary rule, that is set for who? Will her pink hair disturb the class? Well I guess it will if the teachers and the administration make a big deal out of it! Our educators have a tough job, as do our children! Teaching and learning! That’s it! Teachers: molding young minds, helping them to establish themselves into a knowledgeable, literate human being! Children: learn, learn, learn……become something better by retaining the information afforded them!
We need to show our children that pink hair is not such a big deal and it won’t be unless we make so.

Lenny, What will our children learn WHEN we elect Barrack Obama president? They will learn that in America you can be whatever you choose, that the color of your skin, what faith you are, or what decent you are you too can be president! And a great president he will be!

I wish some of the parents in this school district had the guts for everyone to show up with pink hair, at the next school board meeting! LOL Jane

If this girl was actually warned about her pink hair last year and the rules actually state something about “unnatural” hair color, then yes, she deserved to get in trouble for what she did. If these two thigns were explained to her, then she did this out of pure defiance! Why couldn’t she have found other ways to show her cancer support? Pink clothes, pink accessories, pink whatever, but if she was told specifically about her hair, she got what she deserved. Had she tried to find a way to get the rules changed, she may have gotten further than just going against them! There are peaceful and less defiant ways to get rules changed. Kids have to be taught the value of following rules EVEN IF THEY DON’T LIKE THEM!
My employer has specific rules about what I can and can’t wear to work etc. If I violate those rules just to violate them, I deserve what I get, even if that means I’m asked to leave my job. I know the rules going in and unless I fight to change them, I’m stuck abiding by them.

Logic,
My pink haired daughter has been gainfully employed at our local YMCA since she was 15 but thanks for the advice I’ll be sure to pass it on.

“They can express themselves by doing as they are told and not asking questions.”

Hahahaha. Lenny, you are hilarious, and the kind of person the republican party is counting on for votes. And neither of those are compliments.

Also, to SSK, I certainly understand that rules are meant to be followed, and I have lived my entire life so far following plenty of them.

But have you never in your life questioned the reasoning behind the institution of a rule? If I told you that you could no longer wear socks, would you just do it blindly? Don’t be a sheep.