Don’t school administrations ever learn? 12-year-old Amelia Robbins has been suspended after dying her hair pink as a tribute to her late father who died of cancer.
Broadsheet sums it up:
Administrators argue that the dye job is a “distraction” to other students, but with the full support of her mom, Amelia’s choosing to fight the suspension rather than adopt a more conventional hair color. “I don’t feel like I should have to, because i’m expressing myself as an individual. Because they constantly tell us be different, don’t follow the crowd.”Nice one, kiddo! It’s never too early to start calling out your superiors’ hypocrisy!
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nine comments
As someone who had pink hair (also purple, and red, and blue...) all through high school just because I thought it was pretty, I seriously can't fathom school administration hassling a girl who's doing it in tribute to her dead father. Then again, maybe I can — it's always something...
Posted by melinda
August 25, 2008, 10:42 AM
This is crazy! I hope she changes something - I mean she does this for her Dad!!
I was 12 years old and dyed my hair red. I was pulled aside by the principal and he said that this "was a distraction to the educational process." He called my Mother and asked her if she knew I did this. My Mother replied, "I helped her dye her hair." He was a mean school official and degrading to the working class. I left my hair red and kept on expressing myself throughout the rest of junior high.
Posted by Cecelia
August 25, 2008, 12:10 PM
"Distraction"?
Really?
Well if a kid with a different colour of hair is that big of a distraction to the rest of her class,
maybe kids should be learning how not to be distracted by colours.
What are they, crows?
"Oh! Something shiny!"
Yet another example of how kids are being treated like objects, meant to be programmed, and shipped out,
instead of human beings, with feelings, family, and beliefs.
I know adults with hair died rad colours,
other adults aren't distracted by this at all.
The whole "distraction" thing, is, in my opinion, a lame excuse for "educators" who are close-minded and intolerant and obviously don't get out much, because the world is becoming more expressive every day,
a fact which the school system pretends, but does not in practice, embrace.
Posted by Sarah
August 25, 2008, 12:58 PM
I went to one of the top high schools in the United States. In the classrooms at my school you could look down a row of desks at random and see one kid with blue hair, another with Muslim hijab, a third with goth makeup and a safety pin through his nose, and a fourth in designer clothes. In other words, there was no dress code and people dressed however they chose. Since the school has something like seven Nobel Prize winners and top SAT rankings, and 99% of the kids go on to college, the attire doesn't seem to have distracted anyone.
The point of course is that a student's hair color, length or style shouldn't be an issue. It's only a distraction if the school makes it such. And frankly if students are paying more attention to their classmate's hair than the teacher, it doesn't speak to the quality of the education they're receiving.
Posted by Denise
August 25, 2008, 4:15 PM
This story made http://detentionslip.org! Check it out daily for all the crazy headlines in education.
Posted by hall monitor
August 25, 2008, 7:54 PM
Prohibiting "unnatural" hair colours is simply another irrelevant way to exert control over students. I had bright blue hair in high school for about two weeks--I had to redye it a "natural" colour or else face suspension during the period I had blue hair. I wasn't keen on suspension--it meant eventually relenting and returning to school with a "normal" colour in the end. So at least redying my hair immediately made things easier and didn't allow for the school to have even greater satisfaction. I honestly did try to defend myself, writing an editorial for the school paper about it and writing letters to the administration and meeting with them, but the power of one only went so far. And I was very academic then, and thought suspension would screw me over for life (untrue).
Now in university, I happily have blue hair again and undergrads don't seem to be failing courses from looking at my hair.
Posted by Jelly
August 31, 2008, 2:27 PM
Go young girl,Amelia Amelia, keep your pink hair in honor of your father.Im very sorry he dead of cancer.Pay no mind to that Principal J.T.HALE.He has no heart. It is him an that handbook that needs to change,not you. Have a very good year.
Posted by Byron Potter
October 31, 2008, 7:15 PM
Don't you dare redy you'r hair! My hair is Blonde, but that's just me. You are a great person for sticking up for yourself, don't change that! That principal is just a tart, follow your heart, hey, that rhymed! My 3rd grade teacher died of cancer as well. I am so very sorry. You ARE right,
your dad IS proud of you! I hope you do the right thing!
Posted by Blake
November 7, 2008, 5:24 PM
Saying that having a different hair color is a distraction, what the difference in saying something like black people are a distraction? i mean in a way it's raciest! If that happened to me I'd like say "Screw you" and change schools to some where that doesn't have such rules.
Posted by Takashi
November 19, 2008, 3:57 AM
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