The purple hair in question that got my daughter sent home from school, presented for you to decide how “distracting” it seems to be.
I spoke with the vice principal at North yesterday (Ms Patton-Griffin?), and she explained that the primary reason for the “no un-natural hair color” is to prevent gang activity. She said that gangs often use certain colors to identify themselves, most often red and blue. Well, OK, by that logic, shouldn’t the school also ban gang colors on clothing, purses, and such? Her second reason was that the un-natural hair color was a distraction, and stated that several people asked her on Wednesday, “Why does SHE get to color her hair?” Hm. Well, if the policy was changed or rescinded, then any kid could use any color, and no one would feel slighted. And how is hair color any more distracting than green nail polish, or red eye shadow, or even big, dangling earrings, or any other such personal effect that kids (and adults) use to express themselves?
I dunno. This “natural hair color only” policy leaves me scratching my head. There’s a school board meeting on Monday evening; we may attend and see if the policy can be reviewed. Any of you folks had experience with this policy, or tried to change it?
3 responses so far ↓
1 ZenPanda // Apr 21, 2006 at 2:11 pm
I have had to deal with Mrs. Fagenstrom (Paris princpal now East pricipal) on this before. MS is just very strict in comparison to elementary or HS. No one I know has succeeded in getting a change.
I will say your run in was better than mine…Mrs. Fagenstrom suggested that I wash my daughters’ hair in Tide to get the color out.
2 liv // Apr 22, 2006 at 11:57 am
When I read about this over at BLTB, I envisioned PURPLE purple, and a lot more of it. Why does anyone care? Honestly.
3 GREATER FALLS, MONTANA! » Blog Archive » Hair + Color: Part III A Blog About Great Falls Montana // Aug 14, 2006 at 8:15 pm
[...] My daughter and I attended the school board meeting this evening. We sat through an hour of previously-scheduled agenda items, learned a bit about how the board works, and then had a few minutes to state our case for rescinding (or otherwise modifying) the existing “natural hair color only” policy. The board did seem quite sympathetic, but pointed out to us that we didn’t follow the correct protocol for addressing such an issue. Apparently we need to discuss the matter with the district superintendent (or the deputy), and if we still are not satisfied, THEN we can bring the issue to the school board. So we’ll try to schedule a meeting with the superintendent this week and have a discussion. [...]
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