Parents Sue School For Hair Policy

The parents of a 14-year-old kicked off his Junior High basketball team when he wouldn’t cut his hair are planning to sue the school district.

Says the Indy Star,

In a lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, Patrick and Melissa Hayden say team rules governing the length of players’ hair violate their son’s right to wear his hair the way he wants and also treat male and female athletes differently because female players don’t have to adhere to the same guidelines.

The boy, known only as A.H., apparently refused to comply with a team rule that hair be above players’ eyebrows, collars and ears. The school code states that hair can’t “create problems of health and sanitation, obstruct vision, or call undue attention to the athlete.” His parents want the school to change the policy, rule it unconstitutional, and award damages to the family. Says their lawyer, “What they’re trying to do here is teach (their son) a life lesson, which simply is that you fight for what’s right…This is classic David versus Goliath, and they want their son to understand that.”

Although rulings of this kind have been a mixed bag in the past, the fact that the bone of contention’s an extra-curricular — and therefore voluntary — may change things. Team sports are not technically a “right” like education, which makes things less clear-cut, since the student theoretically could have chosen not to join based on its policies, which were in place beforehand. That said, this family needs to move to Brooklyn.

Lawsuit Over Greensburg Short-Hair Rule May Be A Long Shot [Indy Star]
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