A school district in Ohio has suspended a student for showing support for his favorite NFL team…on his head.
Dustin Reader, an eighth-grader at Garfield Middle School in Halmiton, Ohio was given in-school suspension by the principal for having stripes and a “B” shaved into his head in support of the Cincinnati Bengals, according to the News Journal.
The newspaper reports that Reader had barely gotten off of his bike when he was sent to the office. School officials say Reader violated the school’s code of conduct which bans “unnaturally colored hair, extreme/distracting makeup, haircuts and hairstyles.”
His parents don’t see what the fuss is about. James Reader, the boy’s father, says it’s about his son’s pride in the team’s 6-2 season. “It’s not racist, not drug-related, not gang-related or anything like that. It’s about football.”
Reader’s mother, Tina Wanamaker, said, “He’s had designs on his head before and no one said anything.” His parents told the News Journal that once he had the word “Lost” buzzed on his head and was told by the school to fix it, but didn’t get into trouble.
His barber, Chris Campbell, said he’s shaved designs for students who attend several schools in Halmiton, but “never has anyone come back to me and said they needed it cut out because they were being harassed in school.”
School officials say he will stay on in-school suspension until it grows back or is fixed.
Reader’s parents are behind him “100 percent” and say they’re not going to fix it.
I think the barber has the situation pegged. The young man is being harrassed. Not by other students picking on him thinking he has a stupid haircut, but by those in charge of educating him for not looking like everyone else.
According to the precedent set in Tinker v. Des Moines, the form of expression must be proven to be a distraction before diciplinary action can be taken. Reader wasn’t even given a chance.
When are the indoctrination centers going to accept that the Constitution applies to everyone, children included?
1 Comment
November 13, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I saw the hair cut on the tube. I think that it would be a distraction. Just my take.