Published: November 13, 2009 08:48 am      

Suspension leads to troubling sign for youth

When laying out today’s newspaper, I came across a story that bothered me.

The article didn’t include anything about a war or detail a gruesome murder perpetrated by a sick, twisted individual. Instead, it featured a middle schooler, support of a favorite team and a haircut.

If you haven’t scanned the entire paper by now, turn back to the Family section on page 8A. I’ll give you a few minutes to scan through the small story…OK, now you know you the gist of what happened.

For those who didn’t read it, though, here’s what happened: An eighth-grader got a haircut that featured a large B and stripes that signified the child’s favorite NFL team, the Cincinnati Bengals. The school punished the kid, forcing him to go to in-school suspension for violating the school conduct code that prohibits “unnaturally colored hair, extreme/distracting makeup, haircuts and hairstyles.”

In today’s world, you can never trust if stories are true. However, in this case, no one could possibly make this up.

What has the world become?

When I was younger (now I’m really beginning to sound like a bitter old man) I remember when my brothers and I would get lightning bolts buzzed in on the sides of our head. Conduct like that would get us sent straight to the principal’s office nowadays.

My oldest brother, Matt, pleaded with my mom to get LJ (signifying Larry Johnson, who used to play for the Charlotte Hornets) inscribed in his hair. She eventually caved. Good thing Matt graduated when he did, otherwise he may have been kicked out of school for such blatant disregard for the rules.

This situation has to be unique to this school. No other school in America could possibly dole out punishment with such little thought process. Think again.

Unfortunately these decisions are not made only on the coasts anymore.

Just like this situation, which involves a town in Ohio, towns across the Midwest, including Iowa, are cracking down on students in precarious ways.

In August, faculty in Atlantic allegedly ordered five high school girls to be strip-searched after another student claimed one of them stole $100.

The direction taken in these incidents could have been altered if the people in charge would have used common sense. A shirt that barely covers anything may be against a school’s student code, but what’s wrong with self-expression, especially when it has nothing to do with gangs or drugs.

In regards to the strip search, how did an alarm not sound when the educators started to piece words like strip, search and high school girls together?

Kids, especially middle schoolers and high schoolers, can be difficult.

We’ve all claimed to know it all and express ourselves through dress, words or other forms of communication.

Hopefully these instances will help educators realize the mistakes made by other districts, and learn to choose its battles with defiant students, and let kids be kids for a change.

If they don’t, future generations better beware and parents should refrain from sending their kids to school with anything less than a military buzz cut.



Scott Levine is the Associate Editor at the Clinton Herald. He can be reached at scottlevine@clintonherald.com.