12 yr gets highlights in hair. That's a suspension.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- One Channelview sixth grader got some unwanted time off from school, and an extra trip to the hair salon.

For Stephanie Plato, it started out as a good idea for her 12th birthday.

She said, "Well, I've seen them on my mom and I liked it and wanted it."

So Stephanie told her mom she wanted highlights and she got them -- blonde and red highlights colored into her natural light brown hair. She also got something else -- in school suspension, also called ISS.

....

The red highlights caught the eye of school officials at Cobb Elementary in the Channelview school district. Stephanie and her mom were told the red highlights violated the student code of conduct. Stephanie's mom says she never intended to violate the rules.


http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=7957958

why can't people just let people be people as long as they aren't hurting anyone?

Seems like everything is regulated or has a rule, instead of defining and limiting government it now appears the govt is limiting us as much as it can - both on a federal and local level.

It is all about fear - fear of terrorists and law suits.

to school."Good old days" is a fairy tale.

And the teachers were allowed to beat the shit out of students if they felt like it. 'Good old days', my ass.

wear pants.I still remember how thrilled (and more comfortable) we all were.

had to take them off in school.

The only time we were actually allowed to wear pants was in gym class. Under our dresses. Which meant we had to climb the ropes and do other things in dresses.

It wasn't until I was a senior in HS (1970) that the dress codes changed and we were allowed to wear whatever we wanted. Within reason, I mean. No bikinis or things like that.

We had to wear slacks, no jeans, and this was at a public school.

I also grew up during those days. Boys had to wear slacks (no jeans) and girls wore dresses or skirts.

as future corporate serfs.

wanting to conform to society's beauty standards? Society wont have it! :sarcasm: It's like they just want to create more internal conflict for her. I'm sure she's confused about her appearance enough, I know I and most of my friends were as 12 year old girls. Red highlights are tame. I actually made the tips of my hair an interchanging acid green and purple.

...I still like dying my hair unnatural colors. It's fun, funky, and guess what? Hair grows back! Screw it up enough, buy a hat and wait a month or two :rofl:

My wife got kicked out of NHS in high school (early 90s) because she dared . . . DARED, I SAY, to wear a nose ring.

Amazing.

tammywammy - redhead

I'm another red head!

Sure, Channelview is just East Houston, but it's still the same redneck mindset. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some fundy-Christian thinking behind that 'rule'...

I don't want to go to school anyway. It interferes with my computer & nap time.
:rofl:

...and carefree....Next thing you know, she'll be smiling and joyful.

"violated the student code of conduct" :wtf:

Oh, it's Texas.

I am glad my grand daughter, who is 8, lives in Chicago. She has black hair and wanted blue stripes in it, so her mom let her. Then her girl friends did the same. No problems. Those little high achievers got a chance to express themselves, enjoy themselves, and continue to learn. Can't be having none of that in Texas. (I was born there, so I have every right to my harsh opinions about it. Austin's cool, though.)

My middle school girls, and some of the boys, do some really odd things with hair dye.

Why would hair coloring be part of the student code of conduct???

Edited to add:

We see reds, golds, blacks, pinks, greens, and purples.

Even I wore purple hair for a couple of months last spring; when one of my classes won a challenge, they got to choose their "prize."

except for green.

Although I do have some green dye that I plan on using for St Patricks day.


But yeah. I'm 58. Not that long ago I did the purple hair and blue hair. When I was younger it was gray, white, red, orange, silver, black, brown, yellow, etc.

that's what hair is for.

:7

The truth may bare no resemblance to this STORY.

:rofl:

http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14036360

Stephanie won't be allowed back in school until her original color returns. She's since darkened her hair to blend better with the highlights and get back to class.

Copyright 2011 CNN. All rights reserved.

I always let my kids do what ever they wanted with their hair... it grows out/in and kids need someway to experiment!!

they would kick me out too - this is what my hair looks like this morning :rofl:

IMG]

It's a one day suspense too. 6th grade is elementary here & NO makeup, glitter, no red nail polish or highlights are allowed on girls. They feel it sexualizes them and they are children. If you want to have colored highlights, even pink or blue, you have to buy clip ins and do it outside of school.

Is 6th grade elementary in Texas? If so, then I don't disagree with it, 6th graders are roll models to 3rd & 4th graders. If it's Jr. High then they over re-acted.

But I have issues with young girls trying to look older with make up & hair dye anyway. It attracts predators. And 12 is too young & the Mother could have waited for Summer and then dyed it back to normal when school started. Or maybe her Mother could have waited until her daughter was out of a training bra & had her period first before putting permanent dye in her hair. And if her daughter needed creative expression use the money for hair dy & put her in an ART, acting, or pottery class & develop her creative expression. But, I'm a real b*&ch about stuff like that. It's what hair clips are for.

This issue doesn't just affect girls. I think there's a bit of a difference between a few highlights and an all-out bleach-blonde haircolor change that a girl didn't really *want*, but felt pressured to get in order to be considered "pretty". If the kids want to color their hair, why not let them? Encourage individuality and self-expression--pink, blue, green, purple, whatever they want.

If you want to forbid something, then forbid the bullying behavior that makes young girls feel "forced" to adhere to a certain beauty standard. Replace the "No coloring your hair/wearing makeup/etc." rules with one that simply says, "Absolutely no negative comments about someone else's looks will be permitted".

The issue is to me is: Is it appropriate in Elementary School.

I believe you should wait until Junior High. The girl on the tape said she did it to be pretty. The Mother should be working on her self-esteem, instead of supporting the decision that she need highlights to be Pretty. The girl during the interview said nothing about art or creativity, she said she did it to be pretty.

By coloring her daughter's hair to be Pretty her Mom sent the message that "Yeah, your not naturally pretty."

more about you than it does the girl. She had red highlight. Red. There's nothing sexualizing about red hair.

:rofl: That's completely absurd. You really imagine there's a creeper rolling down the street in his windowless Econoline van thinking "Mmm, which one of these sixth graders has blonde highlights. . .?"

The kid wanted to emulate her mom with some hair color -- BFD.

Yes, it's a dumb policy, but if it was already on the books then the parent should have protested it directly or else she should have expected this result.

Ultimately this is a petty, stupid story that shouldn't even have made the local news. We have catastrophic failures at every level of public education, but now ABC-13 has an excuse to discuss nothing other than this little girl's hair-based persecution.


My son's school district has a bunch of stupid guidelines, among them "no art class" and "drill them in preparation for NCLB testing." I'd rather see news coverage of these failures instead of trivial disputes over minor policy issues.

because the policy seems CRAZY.

not unexpected since the rule was in place, but certainly unreasonable.

However, the rule was in place and the mother had access it to it. Either she ignored the potential consequences, or else she sent her daughter to school knowing that she might face those consequences.

This is utterly ridiculous, and remember, I live in Texas.

This should be this little girl's parent's decision. If they think it's okay for her to color her hair, then she can color her hair. What could possibly be a problem for the school based on her coloring her hair?

It's just yet another frail attempt to make all little girls "modular", which is horrible for their developing self-esteem. People are different. We should revel in that fact instead of trying to suppress it.

nt

the girl has blonde and burgundy highlights in her dark brown hair, and the boy has a bleached mohawk (although it's only 3 inches long).

Beauty & creativity are different. She did it for beauty.

Ours is 6th thru 8th grades and there are plenty of 12 yr. olds in 6th grade.

It shouldn't matter why they do it, it's just a style (harmless and non-permanent, too).

I'm cool with Middle school, just not elementary. You can't have 6th grade elementary dye their hair & forbid 3rd graders.

I'm cool with whatever color or cut a kid wants in Jr. High & up.

My problem is the girl said she did it to be prettier. She's pretty without it & her Mom should teach her that, not feed into the "you need highlights to be pretty".

If she got a Mohawk & dyed it blue, that wouldn't bother me. That teaches bravery & creativity.

Does it warp their brains somehow, LOL?

What bearing does that have on anything? Are you actually defending this decision that a student should only be allowed "approved hair color"?

The highlights she got are the same one's that were popular 6 years ago from Carrie in Sex in the City. It wasn't punk red or punk blond.

The little girl said she did it to be pretty. Why does a beautiful young girl who (based on video) doesn't even have boobs yet, worry about her beauty?

Now if she did it to be artistic- asymmetrical cut, Mohawk, pink & blue-I'd be o.k. with it.

I think it's sad that a little girl feels she has to alter her looks to met a standard of beauty. Elementary girls should not be concerned with dying their hair to look like grown women.

I think it's a symptom of young girls being sexualized not individual expression. If it was individual expression she would have said so, but she said she was trying to be pretty.

It's a feminist view on young girls feeling pressure in Elementary school to fit a standard of beauty. She should be a girl. She has her whole teen & adult life to wrestle with the society's demands of beauty.

Sorry if I was unclear. I'm not o.k. with little girls trying to look like grown women

Color is color, it's not as if she got a tattoo or a boob job.

Regardless of what you think about a 12 year old having highlights the rule in the schools "code of conduct" forbade certain hair color including "red". Now if you ask me that is a pretty broad term and could mean that kids with red hair need to change it.

Look I'm a big hater of making little girls up to look like women. But this is a 12 year old's hair color we are talking about here not some beauty pageant. She saw it on her mom and liked the way it looked, I don't see a big deal with a kid emulating her mothers hair color. Not to mention that your "pink and blue mohawk" would also have been a violation of the rules. Would you have been against it then? That would seem hypocritical to me.

(insert irony)

you can state without hypocrisy that a mohawk is okay but not highlights?

that's no feminist position.

who says a mohawk isn't about sexuality or trying to look like an adult - where is the consensus on this?

one person's view of beauty is not the same as another's - but b/c you think mohawks are ugly - that makes them acceptable?

a mohawk is as much about trying to look like an adult as highlights - and some people think mohawks on females sexualize them.

maybe it's not your place to decide if this girl was doing something acceptable b/c maybe your aesthetic isn't the only one that matters.

but that's beyond the issue of whether or not a school has rules for dress, etc. - seems to me, tho, if a male or female wanted to cut their hair or dye it one way or another - the rule just makes no sense. what if a kid was doing theater and their role required them to cut or dye their hair? is that an exception? If one thing is an exception -why is it okay but simple choice not okay.

:shrug:

n/t

who (usually) has purple hair.

Come to think of it, the reason she does not at the moment is that people are telling her she needs to look "normal" (whatever that is) to get a job.

Wonder why parents don't "support" those selfsame teachers and admins. :banghead:

And the rules were nothing as stupid as this. I'm not sure where you're getting this... sounds bullshitty to me.

Black frightwig hair, Robert Smith lipstick, and black eyeliner on a boy would probably result in a lifetime suspension. :crazy:

It seems like I had to put up with horrible ammonia stinkin' permanents, because my mom and lots of other moms thought we should have the Shirley Temple ringlets.

Then mom wondered why I came home crying because the other kids picked on me. They just could not resist messing with our hair.

Turns out that when I was 19 and a junior in college, I went to a proper beauty salon and got a good haircut that worked with my hair. That is when I found out what I really had. As it turns out, I have thick, beautiful wavy hair. But you wouldn't know that from seeing Mom messing with it.

And I had to wear a dress to school every damn day for twelve years. I hated going to school and freezing my legs off. We couldn't wear pants. I graduated from high school in 1972. Not far from Channelview, in another narrowminded district. All they worried about was short skirts on the girls and long hair on the boys.

When I got to college, I wore jeans, t shirts, and had long hippy dippy hair and no makeup. My mother was infuriated with me that I refused to wear dresses and makeup. I had plenty of dates and she was enraged. She said in the 1940s she went to Aggie football games in a suit, a hat, hose and high heels. I don't know how you keep from falling down and killing yourself in heels walking in bleachers.

Whom does it offend and injure?