What's your opinion on this news story? Should this lad have his hair cut?

[Aero]

Here.

I know looking smart is important and in my schooldays the rule was the same as this school, but haven't we moved on from 20 years ago? Shouldn't tying it back (same as girls) be enough? Just interested to see what the majority think.

My ds has that length hair and has never had it cut but I would say having been brought up there that Northern Ireland is like this.My family ask me evry time I speak to them if ds hair is still long as if it means anything and when they saw him they all said he needed it cut!I hate this sort of ridiculous rules It looks fine and has no bearing on personality or character

No, he shouldn't have to cut it.

I'd be bloody pissed off if DS's school told me to cut his hair! How sexist is that?! What's wrong with just tying it back or wearing an alice band?

It has nothing to do with education, just with making kids conform and training them to always conform so we have a nice easy conforming society.

I was thinking of cutting DSs hair, but now I'm not going to!

It said in the article that girls at that particular school are required to tie long hair back and so I think the same rule should then apply for boys, certainly not suspension.

However, that same haircut on a girl I think would be classed as "short"?

I was just thinking back then. When I was at school (in the 90s), I dont think there were any specific rules about hair (apart from PE and such). It had to be neat and tidy. Blazers had to be worn at all times even if it was scorching. Shirts were to be tucked in, not hanging loose, and ties were to be worn the right way around (there was a fashion for wearing the small end out and about 3in long). Those clunking platforms that all the girls liked were very much frowned upon also.

Lots of the lads had long hair though.

In the workplace we are not allowed to discriminate between men and women as regards hair, earrings etc now. Would think this was very suspect from a 'human rights' pov. I have certainly seen longer.

One of the (male) vets at work has shoulder length hair and no-one minds. Its kept off his face/out of animal faces with a headband and when he operates its tied up. If a professional can work with long hair and no problems then a schoolchild will be more then fine imo..

If this boy when to the school I work in he would be asked to tie his hair back for science, PE, and all tech lessons.

If he knew the rule of the school when he applied and he is now breaking the rule, then he should think about moving to a school that suits him better.

twattish bollox.

It's hair fgs - he doesn't have all teacher's are twats tattooed across his forehead.

bad apostrophe error

My 16 year old DS has hair a lot longer than that and his teachers often tell him how lovely it looks. It is curly and falls into shiny ringlets arounds his eyes. He does wash and condition it every single morning though and has it trimmed and shaped every 10 weeks.

He would have been what, ten when his parents applied? And I doubt he got to read the school policies in detail. Depending on where he lives he may not have had much choice, anyway.

Agree, sensible thing is to tie it back for lessons where necessary.

personally I wouldn't have an issue with this.

the school I work in wouldn't either.

It can become problimatical when teenagers start to pick and choose which rules they follow, as any parent of a teenager will tell you

Now imagine 30 of them.

managing large numbers of children jusr isn't the same as dealing with your own children at home.

Rules do have to be more cut and dried or you will spend an entire lesson dealing with one strop!

Oh yes, agree schools can't pander to individual whims. But this story does seem like a storm in a small vessel containing liquid flavoured by leaves...

Message withdrawn

Oh, I bet! Although the girl at my school who dyed her hair pink did it all off her own bat. Mind you, no-one was daft enough to take it to court.

My bf at school dyed her hair pink and purple and got excluded for it (although I think it was called being suspended then) - bit bloody crazy as she was one of the brightest girls in her year.

like this one cod

I think same rule as for the girls. In fact, my nephew (year 8) has the exact same hair style and lenght as the lad in the story. It is not interfering with his ability to learn in any way shape or form.
I do see that rules should not be broken, nor that pupils should choose which rules they adhere to.
But I think this is one rule the school should abolish. This is 2008.

We have the same rule about piercings. Up to year 11 they can (regardless of sex) have one visible piercing in each ear lobe. Nothing else visible. Once they are in the sixth form they can do what they like.

Surely he could claim sex discrimination...

Same as girls did when they weren't allowed to wear trousers. There's no reason why a boy can't have long hair but a girl can, it's just gender bias/stereotyping/bigotry ????

If there were any issues - H&S?? about long hair, it would apply equally.

DS2 has hair half-way down his back (rather gorgeous blond satiny hair - much envied by most females). He ties it back for school and sports and the school has no problem with this. He attends an all-boys school (albeit with girls in the 6th form).

He is given a bit of a hard time about it by some of the other boys but I suspect this is jealousy .

Would they suspend a girl who shaved her head on a number 2 blade? Doubt it, but it would definitely look "as bad" (I use the term advisedly) as this boy's hair.

It's a load of nonsense, but I bet if you really get into it, their uniform code says that boys must wear trousers. Would they suspend a boy who chose to wear the girl's uniform?

We had a dress-code at school, rather than a uniform and a boy once tested it by wearing a dress in for three days. Everyone had a good laugh and the teachers turned a blind eye. The school would do better to spend their money on educating the children instead of court-cases.

could be very interesting legally - as far as I'm aware the courts have never ruled on the girls in trousers thing - there was a girl who took up the issue but it ended in an out of court agreement - so the law was never examined. I think that in this case the school would be very hard-pressed and I really wouldn't be suprised if it's ruled as discriminatory.

No! He has lovely hair. I am so glad my kids don't even have a school uniform, let alone have to deal with this crap. Tying back hair (because of lice etc) is one thing but expecting boys to have 'short back and sides' in 2008 is ridiculous