– 4-year-old told he can keep long hair, with restrictions
Tue Jan 12, 10:59 am ET
MESQUITE, Texas – The parents of a 4-year-old boy disciplined for
having long hair have rejected a compromise from a Texas school board
that agreed to adjust its grooming policy.
The impasse means pre-kindergartner Taylor Pugh will remain in
in-school suspension, sitting alone with a teacher's aide in a
library. He has been sequestered from classmates at Floyd Elementary
School in Mesquite, a Dallas suburb, since late November.
After a closed-door meeting Monday, the Mesquite school board decided
the boy could wear his hair in tight braids but keep it no longer than
his ears. But his parents say the adjustment isn't enough for Taylor,
who wears his hair long, covering his earlobes and shirt collar.
His mother, Elizabeth Taylor, said she'll pull back Taylor's hair in a
ponytail, acknowledging the style will keep him suspended.
"If I braid his hair, his scalp will bleed and his hair will break,"
Elizabeth Taylor said after the meeting.
According to the district dress code, boys' hair must be kept out of
the eyes and cannot extend below the bottom of earlobes or over the
collar of a dress shirt. Fads in hairstyles "designed to attract
attention to the individual or to disrupt the orderly conduct of the
classroom or campus is not permitted," the policy states.
The district is known for standing tough on its dress code. Last year,
a seventh-grader was sent home for wearing black skinny pants. His
parents chose to home-school him.
On its Web site, the district says its code is in place because
"students who dress and groom themselves neatly, and in an acceptable
and appropriate manner, are more likely to become constructive members
of the society in which we live."
Taylor said her fight is not over. She and her husband are considering
taking the district to court or appealing to the State Board of
Education.
"I know that there are a whole set of steps we can take," she said.