Wednesday, January 13, 2010

"Deep in the Heart of Texas"

Remember when there was all that talk about Texas possibly seceding from the Union?

Why didn't we do more to encourage that?
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"HOUSTON — A suburban Dallas school district has suspended a 4-year-old from his prekindergarten class because he wears his hair too long and does not want his parents to cut it.

"The boy, Taylor Pugh, says he likes his hair long and curly. But on Monday night, the school board in Mesquite voted unanimously to enforce its ban on Beatles haircuts, much less anything approaching coiffures of bands like Led Zeppelin. School officials say the district’s dress code serves to limit distractions in the classroom.


"No exception could be made for the pint-size rebel, who sat through the hearing with his hair in a ponytail, manifestly bored.


"'It’s a trade-off,' said one board member, Gary Bingham, an insurance agent, in an interview. 'Do the parents value his education more than they value a 4-year-old’s decision to make his own grooming choices?'


"The boy’s parents, Delton Pugh and Elizabeth Taylor, have argued that it is unfair to punish Taylor for his longish locks; it suggests, they say, that the district cares more about appearances than education.


"'I don’t think it’s right to hold a child down and force him to do something,' Mr. Pugh, a tattoo artist, told The Associated Press. 'It’s not hurting him or affecting his education.' The parents rejected a compromise proposed by the board under which they would braid his hair and pin it up.

"Since Nov. 24, when his principal decreed that Taylor’s hair had grown too long, the boy has been sent to the library to study alone with a teacher’s aide. 'They kicked me out of that place,' Taylor told a reporter on Dec. 17. 'I miss my friends.'

"His parents plan to appeal the school board ruling to the state education commissioner. In the meantime, school officials said they would continue to separate Taylor from other children."


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I question many things about Texas that Texans seem to have no problem with- - easy-to-purchase firearms, drive-thru liquor stores, blind people having the right to hunt - - but apparently, most Texans believe that a free thinking, 4 year old boy with long hair is a danger to himself and others. A menace. Probably a Socialist.

So, if Texas doesn't (or won't) secede from the Union, can we all just agree to NOT elect another President from this state until we can prove that each Texan family tree actually forks?!?

8 comments:

Mike said...

And I make my previous comment as someone who has gone on record saying that it's lucky I don't carry around a pair of scissors - because there's nothing I like worse than a cute guy ruining it with bad long hair.

Anonymous said...

I kept expecting to read that they were pursuing a sexual/gender discrimination path. Are all the girls hair short too? Not in TX with all their little miss pageants!

Anonymous said...

I kept expecting to read that they were going to be filing a sexual/gender discrimination suit. Do the little girls have to have short hair too?

Anonymous said...

In strong homophobic catholic countries like the one where I am living in (Portugal)it is a normal practice for the upper class to raise boys in a feminine state until the age of 6. To have a boy wearing long golden locks it is more a sign of traditional aristocrat education than of effeminacy.

Maybe the Texas has more of a problem with aristocratic behaviour than with effeminacy...

Prospero said...

Having spent my share of time in TX (Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Dallas), I can honestly say that there are actually more, smart and friendly folks there than people give them credit for. It's the cretinous Religious Right who are trying to maintain some toehold of control that make the news with ridiculous shit like this. Private schools can mandate whatever hair and dress policies they want. Public schools should be more concerned with why they are pumping out students who are so ill-prepared for the real world.

AJohnP said...

I can't believe that their 'solution' is to braid it and pin it up. That is ridiculous. Leave the kid (and his hair) alone!!!! Yeesh.

Mike Ellis, The Jolly Reprobate said...

Oh, this is nothing! Go read about what Texas is doing to its history curriculum, then consider that most of the country buys whatever school textbooks that the Texas buys.

Not content with the USA going to Hell in a handbasket, Texas is trying to get us there faster.

Mark in DE said...

Its so absurd! As if they don't have any REAL issues to be dealing with, they had to vote on this?