I've been following the story of four year old Taylor Pugh and his parents' fight to get him back in class. And I'm shocked after every development. Pugh has been under an in-house suspension since November because the school district in Mesquite, Texas, ruled his hair is too long and violates the dress code.
Pugh wants to attend his pre-kindergarten class with friends. Instead, he's taught by a teacher's aide in the library away from other students. But now the school is saying he might be forced to sit in the office and lose all instruction, according to UPI.
"There would be people checking on him from time to time, but it wouldn't be the same attention he has now," district spokeswoman Laura Jobe told UPI.
Pugh's parents are considering pulling him out of pre-K and keeping him home. They say if he's not going to be taught, then there's no point in sending him to school.
On the Mesquite Independent School District's website, the 40-year-old dress code policy for elementary students states, "Hair is to be out of the eyes, not extend below the bottom of the earlobes and cut so that it does not extend over the collar (dress shirt)."
The school district ruled Pugh could come to class with his hair braided in tight cornrows. However, his parents say this made his scalp bleed and they have no intention of cutting his hair. They put his hair in a ponytail to try and get the in-house suspension reversed but the school board ruled the ponytail was a violation of the dress code.
If this antiquated dress code policy applied to my son's preschool, half of his class would be suspended. The logic that his hair is a distraction to other kids and the learning experience would have more footing if the school board hadn't offered to let Pugh return to class in tight braids.
Forcing a boy to come to class in braids is silly. How is that less of a distraction to learning than having long hair much like a girl his age?
This story wouldn't be such a big controversy without the voices of other parents weighing in, though. So what do you think?
Is this a "rules are rules" scenario the boy's parents should have complied to or has the school board overreacted to this hairy situation?
OMG that is nuts, first off as a parent unless I had no other choice my child would not be going to a school with rules like that, hair is one way a person express who they are. I agree with bright pinks and stuff but hair past the ear lobe? is that rule for girls as well? I will be following this for sure..