Misbegotten Rules and a Cancer Survivor
School suspends cancer survivor over long hair he intends to donate, says the headline at The Detroit News.
I have a very strong opinion on this, and I have no sympathy whatsoever with the school’s position. They should work out a policy to allow this sort of good deed and especially to accommodate this young man who has survived cancer. Every bit of his plan resonates with me.
Our young people need teachers and school administrators with good sense and flexibility. Our country needs more young men like J. T. Gaskins.
I don’t think he even needs a reason to have long hair. If he’s a good teacher, what does the length of his hair matter? I’m female, do I have to have long hair? If I have cancer and I’m bald, will I be suspended? If I just decide to shave it all off, will I be suspended? If you’re black, do you have to have a white hairstyle? As long as it’s clean and doesn’t interfer with your job, how you wear your hair is your own business. Children should be exposed to people of differnet ethnicities, nationalities, religions. And all of these different cultures have different standards and we should not mandate teachers into a strict white American model. JMO.
I would tend not to have these tense dress code rules, but then I’m not a high school teacher and don’t have to deal with the classroom. I’m willing to concede that rules which to me seem picky might well be necessary. But the exception requested is, in my view, more than reasonable even with that concession.