Texas School Suspends 4-year old For Having Long Hair

Floyd Elementary School administrators have recently become more concerned about a young boy’s hair than his educational development.

Young Tyler Pugh found himself suffering from an in-school suspension for sporting locks that fall past his ear lobes, which is reportedly in violation of the school district’s dress code.

The principal sent home a signed letter to Tyler’s shocked and dismayed parents, threatening to withdraw the young boy from school should he fail to comply with dress code standards.

Tyler’s father, Delton Pugh, disagrees with the disciplinary action, “I don’t think it’s right to hold a child down and force him to do something … when it’s not hurting him or affecting his education.”

The Mesquite Independent School District is known for standing tough on its dress code, which maintains clear gender-stereotype-based definitions of what is “appropriate” for girls and boys. Earlier this year, a seventh-grader in the district was sent home for wearing black skinny pants. His parents chose to home-school him.

Tyler’s parents have stated that Tyler wishes to grow his hair out to donate it to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients. However, in spite of his parents’ pleas for compromise.

“Nobody wants to meet in the middle. It’s all or nothing,” Pugh said. “He’s my son. I love him. I will back him to the end.”

According to the district dress code, boys’ hair must be kept out of the eyes and cannot extend below the bottom of earlobes or over the collar of a dress shirt. Fads in hairstyles “designed to attract attention to the individual or to disrupt the orderly conduct of the classroom or campus is not permitted,” the policy states.

On its Web site, the district says its code is in place because “students who dress and groom themselves neatly, and in an acceptable and appropriate manner, are more likely to become constructive members of the society in which we live.”