Boy's 'military haircut' spurs suspension threat, outcry

[NaturalHigh]

A young boy's high and tight haircut meant to honor his soldier-stepbrother earned him the threat of suspension from an elementary school named for a Medal of Honor recipient, and the fallout from the incident has led a Tennessee school district to increase security measures.

Adam Stinnett went to Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School in McMinnville, about a 90-minute drive southeast from Nashville, on March 9 sporting the new hairdo. His mother, Amy Stinnett, said he'd requested the high and tight to be more like Spc. Justin Bloodworth, his active-duty stepbrother.

Adam was written up by the principal, who thought the haircut was against school policy banning "mohawk haircuts or other extreme cuts."

After his mother received an email from the principal and stopped by for a face-to-face chat, it was made clear that Adam's hairstyle would have to change before he returned to school.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/03/27/school-threatens-suspension-boy-military-haircut/70531810/

Are they only hiring jackasses as principals these days? Yesterday we had that principal who didn't want the special needs student to wear a letter jacket, and now this jughead goes apeshit over a "military" haircut that he thinks is a Mohawk.

[LiberalArkie]

1. I found that people who go after the management jobs with all the hastles involved

are generally control freaks.

[RKP5637]

8. Yep, same here. They want power, control and authoritarianism. It's also a career path

for sociopaths.

[LiberalArkie]

20. I totally agree. My last manager was the only one that was ever different. He was manager

because he was essentially lead tech before. He was the only manager I had ever known who told upper management to fire him if they layed off any of his people. He meant it. When company wide layoffs were going on, his was the only dept to have never had a person canned. He just recently taken a job in engineering (non management) and moved away from operations.

[paleotn]

28. In many cases, you are exactly correct...

couple that with the Peter Principle and you have management in the US, from major corporations down to rural elementary schools.

[LiberalArkie]

36. Oh God, Peter Principle.. Lawyers and business people couldn't make it so they

bought jobs as Senators or Representatives. Now they want to rise to their own level of imcompetance to become President.

[Telcontar]

50. Looking at you Ted

[greiner3]

57. One of my father's favorite sayings for asshats such as these was;

He's a perfect example of the Peter Principle (no pun);

"The Peter Principle is a concept in management theory in which the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate's performance in their current role rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role. Thus, employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively, and "managers rise to the level of their incompetence."'


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle

He was both chief of staff and head social worker at a VA hospital and was at the highest pay grade possible so I don't think this applied to him, IMO.

[stone space]

2. So what's the Principal's solution? Make him wear a wig until it grows back? (nt)

[NaturalHigh]

4. The mother had to shave the boy's head.

This principal is a moron.

[stone space]

6. Still sounds like an extreme haircut to me.

I don't follow hair restoration technology (although I probably should!), but might a hair transplant be a possibility?

[NaturalHigh]

7. "Still sounds like an extreme haircut to me."

Well, that's what I was thinking. I think I'd just go back to school in a Doink the Clown wig.

As for hair restoration technology, that ship sailed a decade or so ago for me.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. principal will be hearing from the internet

[NaturalHigh]

5. I hope so.

[DeSwiss]

9. Yep.

The school district has taken down its Facebook page after a deluge of comments, said Bobby Cox, the district's director of schools. He said the messages were "not necessarily threatening" but added to an incident that had caused the district "great stress." He also said more security had been added to the elementary school. "It's been portrayed that we are anti-military, anti-patriot, and we are not," Cox told Army Times. "I'm just sorry that's been the way it's been portrayed."

[zeemike]

10. Sounds like manufactured outrage to me.

Right wingers do that well...especialy sense they are the ones who want to destroy public education.

[NaturalHigh]

11. Cool story bro.

[abelenkpe]

14. Can't live without the daily outrage

What better way to keep us fighting amongst ourselves over petty BS?

[Quantess]

75. Huh? I don't get it.

Are you saying it is a false flag operation or something?

[zeemike]

79. No I am saying it is manufactured outrage.

If someone hates the school system they do things to show how fucked up it is and let the outrage flow.
It is how you undermine any system...and how you manipulate people.
Buy right wingers would never do that would they?

[Quantess]

78. Oh do you mean RWers are blaming it on a long-haired hippie principal

who says anything goes, the wilder and more counter-culture the better, and only has a problem with military style high & tight?

Somehow I think that is is a stretch, but you never know. Some people don't do reading comprehension very well, but still... it says right in the article mohawks aren't allowed either.

[zeemike]

81. No I think they are blaming it on the public school system

Being oppressive of patriotic people...which is what the right wing has believed sense the John Birch Society started the attack on public education.

First I ask you why the Mohawk was in it in the first place and why the parent decided to give her kid that cut...it reminds me of the kid that got suspended for chewing a pop tart into a gun...why did they do that?...but it again sparked outrage by the right and caused us to support such a stupid reason for a suspension.

They get by with manipulating us and them with emotions.

[lake loon]

12. Dear schools everywhere:

Hairstyles and clothing styles and sexual orientations and gender identities are none of your god-damned business. Just teach, OK??

[paleotn]

29. Ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.

...I totally agree and welcome to DU.

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. This stupid suspension won't last for long,

trust me on that prediction.

[Bibliovore]

18. Per the article, it's presumably already over.

The mother shaved the rest of the child's hair off.

[allan01]

15. hem

reminds me the time when my sis gave me a mohawk without my consent, i as suspended until the hair grew back. ot why do we need spell check in web browsers when they dont work. i fell the pain of the young man. i wonder how the school district would react to what was called a " morman" haircut , shaved around the ears and top left on ?

[NaturalHigh]

16. I'm not sure what you said...

but I enjoyed reading it.

[blackspade]

17. Idiots.

I had an 'actual' Mohawk in high school and no administrator said shit.
My kids go to school with kids with Mohawks today.
Who hires these fools?

[FSogol]

48. Same here. I got a mohawk in 1979. My high school did not care.

[blackspade]

52. ....

[CentralMass]

65. Who hires someone with a Mohawk ?

[eggplant]

67. Someone who doesn't give a shit about hairstyles.

Why would someone's hairstyle keep me from hiring them?

[blackspade]

70. My boss.

But, what does that have to do with the OP, or anything for that matter?

[NaturalHigh]

73. Well, plenty of people do, but that's really not the point.

[tblue37]

19. Remember when boys were suspended for hair deemed too long? nt

[NaturalHigh]

21. No, but we had to have short hair to play football.

Really short. We would show up to football practice the first day with new haircuts. Our coach would single out the ones whose hair wasn't short enough and send them to get more shorn off.

[tblue37]

22. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, schools suspended boys for hair longer than

their ears. Fear of hippies, you know.

[NaturalHigh]

23. Well hippies are responsible for moral decay, violent crime, and war, you know.

I have it on good authority that they've killed everyone since Jesus.

[Ilsa]

53. I remember those days.

They thought strict dress codes would keep teens off drugs and girls unpregnant in my area. If only they had handed out condoms, half of my high school class wouldn't have been parents by age 18.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. I imagine this appearing at Freeperville as a "Libs hate the military" story.

[NaturalHigh]

25. More like a tight-ass principal who reads the rule book like an IRS auditor.

I doubt that the McMinnville TN schools are known for being too liberal.

[paleotn]

31. Ha! That's for sure....

...Liberals are about as common in Warren County as hen's teeth. More than likely it's an authoritarian type, high on their perceived importance but low on cognitive ability. Sounds like the prototypical southern, neoconservative to me.

[RandiFan1290]

34. Locals vote for their school board

"They have every right to enforce their own codes, no matter how trivial they might seem."

You don't get to change the rules just because you have a military fetish

[pinboy3niner]

42. You're right. World 'Nut' Daily and other RW media and blogs jumped on this in a flash.

It was the mother who aggrsssively promoted this to the media as an attack on patriotism and the military and veterans. Outrage ensued...

[Fred Sanders]

44. Fox website loves the non-story and is doing exactly that!

[NaturalHigh]

46. I wouldn't know. I don't go there.

[Fred Sanders]

47. And now that you do know the story is loved in the RW media to bash liberals....??

[NaturalHigh]

49. It still pisses me off about the haircut.

I'm not playing the whole "hates the military" or "unpatriotic" angle, and I'm not planning to practice up on my Seppuku because you don't like it.

As I said before, thanks kindly. Now goodbye.

[Adrahil]

71. Well, if a "liberal" did this, he NEEDS to be bashed.

Suspending a kid for getting a high and tight is RIDICULOUS. When I was a kid, me and almost all my friends got high and tights every spring and wore them all summer, and then let our hair grow come October.

There is nothing extreme about a high and tight. It is a traditional haircut.

Suspending a kid over that hair cut hands ammunition to right wing dumb asses. Don't give them free ammo. It's that simple.

[NaturalHigh]

72. Thank you. I don't think I was getting my point across.

[Inkfreak]

76. We should agree with the principle?

What foolishness. No thanks. Fox RWers and this principle can go fuck themselves. I've had a high-n-tight since I was a kid. Best haircut ever.

[treestar]

55. +1

Exactly. While DU is busy seeing principal control freak authoritarian, the same person is being deemed a liberal by freepers.

[NaturalHigh]

60. Well, at least everybody seems to agree that he's a jackass.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

62. Right Wingers really believe all things bad are from Liberals.

[pinboy3niner]

63. And that most educators are liberals who brainwash kids in public schools, of course. nt

[mopinko]

26. who repealed the 60s, anyway?

damn. we thought we won this battle, and here we are again.

how the hell can a military cut be extreme? i do not get it. it's a fucking crew cut. i thought that we the required cut for the uptight right.

[NaturalHigh]

32. It's the same cut my grandpa got when I was a kid.

[Shrike47]

27. I think Mohawks are ugly. I think a lot of things are ugly. Do I get to decide how others look?

Cool. A lot of people are going to find their hair, piercings, tattoos and jewelry are right out! What, you mean I don't get to control everybody? What kind of a deal is that?

In case it's unclear, I think the principal blew it.

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. Dumb outrage du jour

[Chicago1980]

33. You'd think that in the bible belt

these so called "Patriots" would know the difference between a Mohawk and a Military haircut.

[Savannahmann]

35. Hmmm..

If the boy were to shave off the rest of his hair, he'd look like a skin head, which is synonymous with racism and sexism and violence against minorities. Out of curiousity, would the Principle have an objection to that?

[NaturalHigh]

39. That's what his mother did. She shaved it all.

[stone space]

77. He's gone from a military haircut to a Gandhi 'do.

he'd look like a skin head

[Fred Sanders]

37. Come on, it was a misunderstanding, like it says in the article...this is Fox level "outrage".

[NaturalHigh]

41. I'll be sure to ask you what I can post next time.

Actually I won't.

[Fred Sanders]

43. Just saying your conclusions and outrage are not based on facts. Of course, post what you like, as will I.

[NaturalHigh]

45. Hey thanks! That's very kind of you!

[Smarmie Doofus]

38. The short answer to this question is "yes".

>>>Are they only hiring jackasses as principals these days? >>>>>

The longer answer is "well, *generally* YES."

The entire field ( education) has been radically dumbed-down starting w. GWB and NCLB in the early 2000s and then taking off like a rocket ship in 2009.

Our rulers ( who have never used and WILL never use public schools themselves) have determined that they want trained monkeys as classroom teachers and Nazi comandantes in charge of the buildings... and of the monkeys.

[VA_Jill]

40. If this principal

cannot tell the difference between a mohawk and a military "high and tight", then he needs to get his sorry ass back to school.....NOW. Because he is obviously too stupid to be the "principal teacher" which is what "principal" signifies.

[sabbat hunter]

51. I can see how

that can be mistaken for a mohawk, although mohawks are generally narrower than that.

only way to fix it really is to shave the rest off and let it grow back

[abelenkpe]

54. Love that this thread receives more attention than

the one about continued pollution from fracking in drought ridden CA.

[NaturalHigh]

61. Well, it's Saturday.

[Nye Bevan]

56. So "high and tight" is "extreme" but "completely bald" is not?

And some DUers are defending this policy?

[NaturalHigh]

59. "And some DUers are defending this policy?"

Afraid we might seem too "conservative" apparently. Since when is it conservative to acknowledge when an authority figure acts like a jackass?

[Cryptoad]

58. Knowing USAToday,,,,,

there is probably more to the story that they are reporting,,,,,,,,

[Quackers]

64. Approved Hairstyles for Males

[NaturalHigh]

66. The pompadour on the lower left is a little risque for my taste.

I'd probably tell him to get off my lawn!

[redgreenandblue]

68. Hey kid: You know what's really "military"? Doing what you are told.

If your teacher tells you to drop the stupid haircut and get with the program you do it. Whining to the media about a disciplinary measure has "special snowflake" written all over it, which is the opposite of "military".

I imagine the irony is lost to the parents.

[Nye Bevan]

69. Yep. Kids need to learn not to question the authorities (nt)

[redgreenandblue]

74. It is certainly not my intent to advocate authoritarianism.

Just to point out the irony of someone attempting to make a "people don't respect the military enough" point by demanding an exception to a rule that applies to everyone equally and creating drama in the media.

(to be clear: I think this is mostly the work of the parents)

[RandySF]

80. Maybe the principal didn't realize it's a military haircut?

I once notice a mohawk on someone and he mentioned that it's common in the military now. It was a sign if rebellion when I was a kid.