Wow - that's some braid!

A woman in Texas is fighting her local school board because her 4-year-old son wants to wear his hair long...really long. Though the pre-kindergartner has been on "in-school suspension" since NOVEMBER (he sits alone with a teacher's aide in the library), the school board is willing to compromise: He can wear his hair long so long as it's kept in a braid and remains above his ears.

The mother says she will take him to school with his hair in a pony-tail (which she acknowledges will keep in him suspension) since braiding his hair will "make his scalp bleed."

School orders 4-year-old to braid long locks

Parents of suspended child reject compromise saying his scalp will bleed

Now we used to braid our daughters' hair when they were small and I'm sure that they would both tell anyone who asked that nobody braided hair tighter than their father. (It was the equivalent of a "face lift.") But there was never any danger of scalp bleeding. I'm not certain that the school board should be holding firm at the length of hair of a child - certainly not to the extent of keeping him in "in-school suspension" at a time when the only serious learning of a pre-kindergartner is socializing. I would think keeping him with a solo teacher's aide for the day totally undermines that learning and keeps the school's limit resources (namely a teacher's aide) tied up with one child (now for months) at a time. The school board should lighten on this issue (Don't they play football down there? Haven't they seen the really, some would say dangerously long, hair of those athletes?)

On the other hand, I think the parents proposing ridiculous rationale for allowing their son to be different is not helpful. For once, I would just like to see the right thing done for the right reason and have sanity prevail.

~later, tw