Many schools have strict and specific dress codes in place for their students. While many schools allow their students to dress in their own choice of clothing, there are other schools that require uniforms. Each school is different in terms of what they will and won’t allow students to wear and do with their clothing and accessories on school grounds. Whether or not parents agree with it, these rules are usually in the school’s “handbook” from the very start.
In recent years, many schools and districts have made headlines for discriminating against students due to their appearance.
Over the last few years, some schools have been playing around with dress codes and penalizing students for wearing certain things — even if it doesn’t go against the dress code. Some schools have even begun to discriminate against students due to their hair colors and style.
There was once even a school that asked a family to change their son’s hair entirely.
The male student, who wore dreads in his hair, was told that the hairstyle was “unprofessional” for the school culture and asked his parents to change them or cut them off. The parents, of course, spoke out against the school.
Now, one mom is opening up about her daughter’s school that has come down on her for the color of hair dye she has chosen.
The angry mother wrote into Reddit’s “Am I The A**hole” thread, where many people ask for advice on the site. The post is titled, “AITA for refusing to dye my daughter’s hair?”
She starts off by explaining that her daughter recently dyed her hair pink.
The mom says that she usually does not mind temporary hair colors, because they are not permanent.
“I don’t love it but it’s hair and it won’t last forever. The rule in our house is that she can independently make choices for temporary stuff like hair, but for permanent things like piercings she needs to get permission. So pink hair is whatever to me,” she said.
However, she received a call from her daughter’s school asking to dye her hair a more “natural” color.
She then realized that hair color was not something that was specified in the school’s dress code.
“I checked the school dress code, and it doesn’t dictate anything about hair color. I asked if she was breaking any rules that were written down somewhere other than the dress code, and they said no, but they still want her to dye it. So I asked why,” she wrote.
The principal gave her two reasons as to why they wanted her daughter to change her hair color.
“First, that it’s distracting for other kids in her class. Which… I guess maybe. But I’m a teacher too, and I find these things are only as distracting as the teacher makes them. Like, kids will talk about it for two days or something, and then find something else to talk about unless the teacher makes it a big issue to fight over,” the mom said.
The second reason, however, was a bit much.
“The second is that since the school has uniforms, my daughter represents them when she goes out after classes and it makes them look bad. And I’m just not convinced by that. She’s one of 2000 kids at this school, and she’s a nice kid who doesn’t get into trouble and who happens to have pink hair. I think their reputation will survive,” the mother said.
She explained that her daughter had bleached her hair to get it pink, so dying it again would fry her hair entirely.
She asked the principal to “grandfather” her daughter into the new rule, as her pink hair was present before they passed the new dress code add-on. However, the principal will not budge and is taking it up to higher officials.
Many on Reddit commented in support of this mom and her daughter.
Some said that the principal was “unfairly targeting her daughter.” Others said they, too, went through similar things when they were in school with different hair colors.
One teacher commented saying:
“As a teacher, stuff like this makes me angry. They’re making a big deal about it, not the kid. Who noticed it? A teacher or the principal? Did the kid get sent to the office with a write up, or was she noticed by the principal?
Principals, Headmasters — whatever — they are making this issue MUCH bigger than it has to be. Does having pink, purple, bright red hair make her suddenly not be able to learn?”
Amen! What do you think of this school’s request?
