Letter To The Editor: Regulating Hairstyles Is Not A Job For Our School System
Hair not an educational issue
From the Town Talk
The Rapides Parish school system has no business regulating any aspect of students’ appearance that they cannot readily modify once they leave campus. This applies to the freedom to wear one’s hair as he or she wishes.
Braids, beads, bands or other hairstyles are in no way distracting unless a boy’s girlfriend is using class time to style his hair. That is a disciplinary issue. Policies against boys wearing braids are unconstitutional on two grounds. First, unless females are also not allowed to wear braids, such policies are sexist. Second, braids are almost exclusively an African-American style. Braids are an expression of ethnic heritage and must be respected as such.
Stop being afraid of students who do not look like small-town Republicans. Enter the 21st century, Rapides Parish. Focus on achievement. Give students a quality education. Prepare them for college, vocations and independent living. Only the most regimented of employers have hair codes, and most colleges would not even consider such violations of personal freedom. Don’t worry about how students look as long as they are modest, clean and their underwear is not visible.
Any hair policy whatsoever is reminiscent of the 1960s when redneck police officers would capture an innocent hippie and shave his head! Today that would be considered assault and perhaps even a hate crime.
Do you really want your system to be regarded as stuck in the 1960s? Leave the hair alone.
Rhonda Browning
Vidalia
CenLamar 
Agreed. I got tired of seeing teachers and admins obsess over hair and dress this last school year.
This isn’t the Nichols era of the RPSB and as times have changed, we too need to change. Enough with the small town bullshit. The standards of education in this area are low enough as is. Let’s focus on that instead of caring about hair, uniforms, creationism, and making kids feel good about themselves.
I don’t think the teachers or principals are concerened about braids. The concern is, however, another silly rule that they must now enforce.
Ok, so now braids are allowed, what about ponytails for boys?
All rubberbands must be black. What is the penalty if they are clear, or brown?
The braids must go straight back.
What if they don’t? What is the penalty?
It is not the braids, it is another new rule that must be enforced. It is another rule that the students will spend time trying to find ways to work around. It is another rule with restrictions that the RPSB will not enforce.
So just let kids wear their hair however they please. What’s the big deal?
I would agree. But, that is NOT what they did. They just made new rules.
It would be nice if our teachers could teach and administrators lead their faculty instead of wasting time on all these silly rules that accomplish nothing.
And how happy are the residents of our fine city going to be when all the little white “gangstas” start wearing their hair in cornrows? It is going to be an interesting year.
We need to get the government OUT of the schools and allow the teachers to have the discipline back in the classrooms where it belongs. When a child misbehaves send his ass home until his parents can guarantee his manners in class.
Not gonna happen. The Federal government has pried itself into education so deeply that there is no way it can shift back to state/local hands in the near future. Education has becomes the political tool that careers are made of.
In my experience, discipline is not going to change until society changes. This means never. Write a student up and watch as the parent comes in for the conference. You’ll be called a racist, an idiot, and various other names by the parent because their child acted up, never turns in work, etc. No one wants to take responsibility in these cases and it most certainly isn’t the childs fault.
You want education to change? How about instead of going at the pace of the slowest student, you shift the paradigm so that we go at the pace of the fastest student. Change the curriculum so that the material is harder. Stop teaching towards state tests. Impliment a track system whereby students can pursue careers without being burdened with crap courses and told they have to attend college. If a child is good in the athletic realm, don’t pass him on his skills on the court/field. Bring back literacy, writing, and rhetoric. Strengthen math, science, and foreign language programs. Certification means little because education schools are a joke.
Oh, and quit with the bullshit about dress codes and hair.
You can’t teach to the brightest child because thanks to the liberals you have to make each child feel ‘good’ about him/herself. You can’t allow the dumbasses to fall behind.
“You can’t allow the dumbasses to fall behind.”
Of course you can…..where do you think Pineville recruits it’s police officers from???