A Texas school district bans boys from wearing long hair.

[left-of-center2012]

School officials in Texas forced a 9-year-old boy to serve an in-school suspension for a month,
deprived him of recess and normal lunch breaks, and banished him from campus to an alternative school — all to pressure the fourth-grader into getting a haircut, a new lawsuit says. Still, the boy refused to obey what he believes is an unjust school policy that bans boys from having long hair.

The boy, identified as A.C. in court documents, is one of seven students suing a Texas school district for what they call a discriminatory policy that requires boys — but not girls — to wear short hair. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed the federal lawsuit Thursday on the students’ behalf against the Magnolia Independent School District, which serves some 13,000 students about 40 miles northwest of Houston. The students, aged 7 to 17, allege that the district’s policy prohibiting boys from wearing long hair is based on gender stereotypes that violate the Constitution.

The rule requires that male students’ hair must be “no longer than the bottom of a dress shirt collar, bottom of the ear, and out of the eyes,” the district’s handbook states.

Officials said the district’s dress code has set different standards for girls and boys for years. “This has been approved by the Texas courts and continues to be used by roughly half the districts in the state of Texas”.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-texas-school-district-bans-boys-from-wearing-long-hair-now-some-students-are-suing/ar-AAPN9n4?ocid=uxbndlbing

[RFCalifornia]

1. Wasn't this worked out in the 60s and 70s? nt

[Wounded Bear]

2. How 1950's of them...

[Lovie777]

3. Freedumb! . ..

[louis-t]

4. How are they doing getting the girls to wear burkas?

Y'know, so as to not distract the boys?

[spanone]

5. I went thru this kind of bullshit after the Beatles played on Ed Sullivan Show.

Many of us guy fans were targets of school administrators who were more concerned with the length of our hair than our educations....followed me all through high school.

Fuck this shit...AGAIN

[Initech]

6. They really want to take us backwards, don't they?

[Deuxcents]

7. Texas is keeping the ACLU busy

Time for a donation

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. This is a Title IX issue.

[NightWatcher]

9. Would love to know the boy's ethnicity.

Is this harassment of a Native American boy and an attempt to "kill the indian, save the boy" or an attempt to persecute a young Black male who might have dreads?

I fucking hate Texas and republicans. We live in a flaming toilet and they cannot put aside their hate and cruelty for five damn minutes to try to improve things before beginning another round of cruelty.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. My first thought was NA. No surprise coming from TX Uglicans. nt

[doc03]

11. Back in the 60s in the Beatles era our hair had to be

at least the width of our principal's big fat index and middle finger above the eyebrows.

[Runningdawg]

12. From 1966-1978 my rural OK HS had a strict hair code

Combed straight down from the top it must not touch the collar, the eyebrows or the ears. Not surprising that it was on the border with the Osage reservation. 2 guys challenged it while we were in HS, they were expelled and did not return. $10/hr in the oil field was a better deal. They probably sent their kids to that school and now their grandkids - with a fresh fade.

[budkin]

13. They are just trying to MAGA!

The 50s were so great!

[JT45242]

14. if his family sues they will win

Had to learn about a lot of cases for my education certificates and masters degree. Cases like Tinker v. Des Moines and there are several cases about this. (I think it might have been Karr v Schmidt)

Bottom line -- the school would have to prove that the hair is a hindrance to others learning and distracting. Tall mohawks can be banned in school dress codes because it limits the ability of students sitting behind you to see the instruction (however, that has come under issue as a racist application for black students with tall natural hair).

So, the family could and should sue. The district's legal counsel should have told them that this rule is illegal and they should have known when they passed it. The superintendent should have known, the principal as well... all the folks who would have taken a school law course to get or keep their certificate.

[Iggo]

15. I feel like we did this back in '70 or so.