No Long-Haired Boys Allowed

Many parents today are worried about guns at school, dropping test scores, and teenage pregnancy. But 12-year-old Kenneth Fails was put on in-school suspension for several weeks and through two grades for a different offense: long hair. In the Itasca Independent School District, the rules of the schools are clear: girls can have long hair, boys can't. But the question, now that we're well into the 21st century, is why?

I remember being called into the principal's office one day when I was near Kenneth's age. The principal asked me if I played the violin. I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn't know the long-haired violinist was an old stereotype. Had he asked me if I was a hippie, I might have understood. He meant, "Cut your hair."

But that was a different century. In 2000, I worked under the male chairman of a university department whose hair fell well over his shoulders. In 2006, Jonathan Schwartz became the new president and chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems, a Fortune 500 company. His photo in the New York Times showed him sporting a ponytail.

In the 21st century, America is increasing its enforcement of federal and state laws against discrimination based on sex. The Itasca Independent School District's website itself says, "The Itasca ISD does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, or disability in providing education or providing access to benefits of education services, activities, and programs...." But photos on the district's website show several schoolgirls--but no schoolboys--participating in class with long, flowing locks.

And Fails is not the only Texas boy suspended because of long hair. Earlier n Mesquite, four-year-old Taylor Pugh received the same punishment. The pre-kindergartner was sequestered from his would-be classmates at Floyd Elementary School. His offense: his hair went lower than his ears and he was a boy.

Again, why? Long hair on boys is not a symbol of gang membership or a sure sign of bringing guns to school and getting schoolgirls pregnant. And hair length is not like a school uniform, something you can easily change to what you want when you get home.

Nor is it a sure testimony of what it means in the Bible. In the Old Testament, someone who took the holy vow of the Nazarite could not let a razor come upon his or her head. That is the biblical reason the Nazarite-for-life Samson lost his tremendous strength when his hair was cut. It wasn't because he had a magical mane; it was because having his locks shorn was a violation of his vow to God. When his hair grew back, his vow was restored and so was his strength. He destroyed those who had harassed him into cutting his hair.

No, we do not live in the time of Samson. But we do not live in the 1950s either. African Americans are not forced to ride on the back of the bus; men cannot sexually abuse their wives with little chance of reprisal; and people are not called before the U.S. Congress because they are now or have ever been a member of the wrong political party.

Some may say the solution to Fails' problem of sitting in isolation, staring at the walls, is obvious; cut his hair. But in the same way, African Americans could have avoided a lot of trouble if they had simply sat quietly in the back of the bus. If they had not stood up for what they believed then, they would still be sitting there now.