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Girl, 9, barred from school for shaving head to support friend with cancer

SmokeAndMirrors said:
Humanity is just lost on some people. Frankly, I think it's a shame people with cancer who've lost their hair often feel forced to cover it.

Cover it why? They're fighting one of the nastiest diseases known to man. Whenever I see someone out in public with obvious chemo-balding, I think they're a ****ing badass. Why should they be ashamed?

Saw a woman recently who was chemo-bald, out powerwalking down the sidewalk with walking sticks. Something about her just said, "Yeah, I'm bald. Screw you." I thought she was the coolest thing ever.

The fact that such human tenacity is considered "distraction," and supporting it is considered "distraction" is what is wrong with our culture, and our schools. Yeah, they have a right to do it as a charter, but they're teaching their students that humanity is irrelevant and meaningless. Disgusting. This could be a teachable moment in character building, and instead it's just a "distraction."

I'd totally support a mass head-shaving protest, and I'd love to show up to the party myself.
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Way to objectify people with cancer.

(This post is entirely sarcastic and not intended to be mean-spirited to either the poster quoted or people with cancer. CycloneWanderer is not responsible for any offense taken as a result of this post.)
 
MaggieD said:
Girl, 9, barred from school for shaving head to support friend with cancer | Fox News

It's times like these I wish parents would/could take a stand. And I wish 15 other classmates would shave their heads. The stand I wish the little girl's parents would let her take would be to NOT attend school until the rule is changed. How simple would it be to amend the rule to allow shaved heads when one student in the school has lost his/hers due to cancer??

Easy-Peasy.

I am positively SICK of these academicians who don't have brain cells.
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Kinda like violating the 1st Amendment rights of a pro-life student group.
 
Zyphlin said:
In a general sense, I agree with you. I am MUCH more in favor of rules and enforcement that provide for a wide level of discretion.

At the same time, I also recognize that people in general have created this obnoxious and ridiculous "damend if you don't / damned if you do" society where zero tolerance polices become the norm in part because being hyper offended and sue happy is ALSO the norm, and one came about to combat the other. Both are extremes and both are crappy...but we're not going to get to a point where one or the other isn't the norm unless people can agree to be decent, thinking, rational human beings. And frankly, people as a whole are not seemingly, decent, thinking, rational human beings. Not enough so that a true middle ground seemingly can happen.

So while I very much dislike Zero Tolerance type of policies, I also have a hard time blaming those that institute them.

This is heightened here with it being a charter school. Unlike a public school, the parent is CHOOSING to put their child here. They have a "free" alternative with a more publicly enforced style of rules and methods. They CHOSE to enroll their child into a place that promotes "uniformity" and a "distraction free" environment to the point where it bans shaved heads. I have less symapthy for the parents, not the child, being upset or bothered that something they CHOSE to get involved with enforced the rules they CHOSE to agree to.
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You have a hard time blaming an administration who suspends a 10-year-old three days for making a pointy-finger gun? Really?
 
ludin said:
no they are called rules for a reason, and i am sure if the girl had asked before hand there wouldn't have been an issue, but she didn't and went ahead and did it anyway.

normally i side in favor of the students simply because schools are stupid, but i know how private schools are run. unlike public schools they expect you to follow the rules.
they let her back in.

they still upheld the policy as stated.
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I'm pretty aware of how private schools are run having spent about 50 of my 58 years associated with private Catholic schools. No private Catholic school that I know of here would ever consider suspending a 9 yr old child because she had such charity in her heart that she wanted to mimic what her friend was going through and show her love and support in a very public and tangible way.

The fact that the school "upheld the policy as stated" tells me that the administrators of this school didn't learn a thing from this incident and the bad publicity it's garnered. At the very least, they should have indicated that they will be reviewing the policy to make allowances for such a possibility in the future.
 
Zyphlin said:
So your answer is to perpetrate fraud for a large sum of money.

Gotcha.
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want to effect change with a bureaucracy ... hit them in the pocketbook. hard!
yea, justify banishing a student because their head was shaved to eliminate lice ... either that or pay up

I think the rule being applied here is ridiculous, but it's also a private school. The parents should've understood what they were going into when they signed their kid up. If they wanted to shave the head, they should've checked with the school first in terms of a possible waiver with regards to the policy.
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[emphasis added by bubba to make this point]
my understanding is the school is a charter school. paid for by taxpayers' dollars. don't see what is so 'private' about that
 
mike2810 said:
If you don't understand the way the phase was used that is not my problem.

But to help you out. There should be grey areas to rules.
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your useage of the word "never" here eliminates the very flexibility you are advocating:
Things should never be so black/white that exceptions cannot be made.
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sawyerloggingon said:
I really can't grasp how anyone could hide behind a "dress code" in making a decision like this. Whoever made this ruling needs to be given cancer if that was possible.
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I find it interesting that it is categorized under the heading of 'dress code.'

I didnt see if the parents knew ahead of time of the rule...did they? I mean, if they were curious, would they even have known where to look for it?

To me it seems hygiene-related but I'm guessing the school related it to gangs/skin heads?
 
Meh...some rules are meant to be broken.
 
Lursa said:
I find it interesting that it is categorized under the heading of 'dress code.'

I didnt see if the parents knew ahead of time of the rule...did they? I mean, if they were curious, would they even have known where to look for it?

To me it seems hygiene-related but I'm guessing the school related it to gangs/skin heads?
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The rule was about a dress code pure and simple. Throwing this little girl out for shaving her head in support of a friend with cancer is like giving a speeding ticket to a man taking his pregnant wife to the hospital at above the speed limit when she has a baby foot sticking out of her.
 
MaggieD said:
Girl, 9, barred from school for shaving head to support friend with cancer | Fox News

It's times like these I wish parents would/could take a stand. And I wish 15 other classmates would shave their heads. The stand I wish the little girl's parents would let her take would be to NOT attend school until the rule is changed. How simple would it be to amend the rule to allow shaved heads when one student in the school has lost his/hers due to cancer??

Easy-Peasy.

I am positively SICK of these academicians who don't have brain cells.
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I have no words...
 
justabubba said:
your useage of the word "never" here eliminates the very flexibility you are advocating:
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Fine. Should have known your a grammer/wordsmith type.:mrgreen:

It is your issue if you couldn't grasp the idea.
 
mike2810 said:
Fine. Should have known your a grammer/wordsmith type.:mrgreen:

It is your issue if you couldn't grasp the idea.
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no, you made an excellent point
the 'never' was just such a contradiction to the observation that i could not resist busting you for it

like grammar

my posts are rife with errors and misspellings and then seldom do i properly punctuate, so not even close to being a grammar nazi ... which term is probably prohibited by the very stupid martial law rules in the middle east forum
 
If this is allowed, where does it end? Tebow caught crap for putting Bible verses on his eye-black. If we allow that, how long until "Allah is God"? Or "Hi mom"? Or "West SYYYYDE".

Places have very strict dress codes because making exceptions in one case will lead to exceptions made in future cases...and more cases...and more cases...until the entire code becomes moot and unenforceable.

This school doesn't want to give up the mile, so they're forbidding this inch.
 
ludin said:
life is run by rules and guidelines. people that break them usually end up in jail or dead.
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Bwahahahaha This little girl is most certainly headed for a life of crime!:eek:
 
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rhinefire said:
Look at this statement.......
the dress code "was created to promote safety, uniformity, and a non-distracting environment for the school's students. Under this policy, shaved heads are not permitted."

Explain a safety hazard resulting from a shaved head: "uniformity", in this application isn't that another way of say they discourage students from thinking as individuals?
A "non-distracting environment", now I am going to guess those kids and I means 100 % of the student body have seen thousands of shaved heads.
I think this young lady, Kamryn has learned that there are many stupid things and people that she will cross paths with in her life and this has been one of them. Last, if I knew the name of the school was Cap Rock I would have not applied.
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I wonder if under the uniformity rule, do all the kids have to have the same color hair, blonde for instance.
 
CycloneWanderer said:
I'd be interested in hearing the school's mission statement and then holding the administration accountable if their actions against this girl are dischordant with their stated mission. Policies and procedures are only valuable or useful when they support the stated goal of the institution they are upholding. On the occasions that policies become detrimental to the accomplishment of the stated goal of the school, that is when a good administration recognizes the discrepency and allows the goal of the institution to supercede the policies on the books.
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In my experience growing up when a useless rule like this was enforced with such fervor, it made me less respectful of all the rules.
 
Redress said:
See, this is one of those totally avoidable situations. Let us imagine a scenario: girl wants to shave head to express support for friend with cancer(sound familiar? Just like what did happen, until...). Girl, knowing school has strict dress code and forbids shaved heads, goes to school administrators first. Now the administrators can either say, as they actually did when she came to school with a shaved head, you will need to wear a wig while actually at school, or they can say, well, you where willing to work with us so we will make an exception.

What actually happened is the girl just ignored the rule and did as she pleased, which left the school with fewer options. Simply being proactive on her part would have solved things. This should be an important lesson for the girl. Too bad people are too busy being outraged...
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What would cause a bigger distraction, her shaved head or her figiting with a wig all day?
 
Mason66 said:
What would cause a bigger distraction, her shaved head or her figiting with a wig all day?
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Actually, my heart goes out to her if she is forced to wear a wig in school. She will be teased unmercifully.
 
MaggieD said:
Actually, my heart goes out to her if she is forced to wear a wig in school. She will be teased unmercifully.
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And how would she be able to learn anything with an uncomfortable wig on all day. Seems counter productive.

It seems an odd rule requiring all students to have hair.
 
CanadaJohn said:
2. No wonder kids in Colorado are prone to shooting up schools - the stress of having to conform into a progressive robot must be incredible.
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You've seriously got to be kidding me.
 
Lutherf said:
It's not that surprising. Liberals LOVE rules telling other people what to do. They only hate the rules that tell them what to do.
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And there it is. The first partisan dig of the thread. And a nonsensical one at that.
 
Superfly said:
And those of us who do buck the system, and try to fight the establishment alone are branded as troublemakers.
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I love that title. It keeps people on their toes around me.
 
apdst said:
Kinda like violating the 1st Amendment rights of a pro-life student group.
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Kinda-sorta but not really. Here, the issue is common sense...which isn't that common. This seems like a dumb, petty administrative decision to me.

Kids shaving their heads in solidarity with a classmate (or fellow Scout) is not anything new; I remember its being done in my community in the late '90's. All you can do is shake your head here.
 
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