Xavier Davis, a sixth-grade student from Baytown, TX, was threatened with suspension for his haircut last week (Apr. 20). If you’re wondering what his hair looks like, it is short with two shaved lines on the side.
“I was walking into class, and she [teacher] saw my hair and said, ‘You can’t have two lines in your hair. Go to the office,'” Davis said of the incident. “I don’t think it’s fair.”
According to Click2Houston, Xavier was threatened with in-school suspension if he did not fix his hair by that following Monday. The district has a very strict dress code policy.
“Letters, symbols, and designs beyond a single straight line which draw attention to an individual shall not be permitted,” says the district dress code of conduct. “The administrator/supervisor reserves the right to determine if a hairstyle is disruptive to the educational process.”
In order to stay in school, the boy’s mother filled in one of the two lines with a Sharpie marker, a move the boy’s father Matt was baffled had to be made.
“He’s had his hair cut like this for six months and now all of a sudden it’s a problem?” Mr. Davis said. “He had a space here and a space there. [His mother] took a Sharpie permanent marker and colored the bottom of his hair in, so in order for him to get an education, we have to treat his hair like a coloring book, I guess.”
“I don’t know if having one line or two is a distraction to learning, it’s not a distraction to me,” Mr. Davis continued. “It’s nonsense. We send him here to get an education. We send him here to learn. It’s not about his haircut.”
What are your thoughts?