Wrestling
Back in the early 1970’s, I was a high school wrestler. Wrestling then, and now, places a huge demand on athletes. It’s not just the hours of practice, honing skills on the mat. It’s the immense conditioning required to successfully compete for six minutes with 100% effort from every muscle group: calves to biceps, quads to neck, fingers to toes. And in a tournament, you do it again and again, up to six times in a day (under current rules).
Add to that weight control, something completely foreign to teen athletes used to burning all that they can consume, and more. But wrestling is precise: at the moment of weigh-in, your body must be less than or equal to the required weight. There is no leeway; an ounce over, and you’re out of competition. Often the hardest part of wrestling isn’t in the practice room. It’s in the middle of the night, when hunger tries to overwhelm commitment. There’s an old wrestling joke about dreaming of eating a giant marshmallow, and waking the next morning to find the pillow gone. But the real nightmare is dreaming you’re eating a box of pop tarts, and waking to find the wrappers all around. The hunger is real.
So after all of that, the rules about fingernails, beards and hair length seemed petty, not worth arguing about: “I’m starving, so get me on and off the scale so I can eat. I’ll chew my nails, and my buddy will trim my hair. As a fifteen year old, please tell me to shave, that would be an honor!”
Old School Rules
Our athletic department decided that the “hair rule” of 1970’s wrestling was good for the entire athletic program. Because wrestler’s hair had to be above the eyes, ears, and neckline; so did every boy’s hair in our athletic program. Our Athletic Director was serious, standing at the team bus door as we boarded for wrestling, swimming, and even track. He checked every boy to make sure we didn’t go “hippie”. He even checked Kenny, our All-Ohio 185 pounder, who was Black. The AD carefully unkinked Kenny’s hair, pulling it out to see if reached the top of his ear. When it did (barely), he pulled out the Trainer’s tape shears, and chewed into Kenny’s hair.
Some of our best athletes in high school chose not to compete. It was only a couple of years past the sixties, and hair length was a part of many of their political statements. It wasn’t until I was in college track, that hair length became a personal statement, not a team rule. There was nothing like a high hurdler with a full “fro”. The sides of his hair flapped in rhythm with his arc over the barriers.
Texas
All of that seems like ancient history, a half century ago. Even wrestling gave up on hair rules decades ago, going for “hair control” instead. But in Texas today, there is a student now twice suspended for having hair that “could” go longer than his ears, eyes, or neck. But this Black teenager has his hair carefully styled, crafted into a tight curl on his head. Sure, if it was unbraided it would hang down his back. But it isn’t.
This isn’t an athletic department rule, it’s a mandate for every boy in the school. And his “potential” violates the “dress and grooming code” of Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvie, Texas. The rules state:
Male students’ hair must not extend below the top of a t-shirt collar or be gathered or worn in a style that would allow the hair to extend below the top of a t-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down.”
I guess his “failure” is in the gathering.
Law School
Over the past decades there’s been a lot of discussion of school uniforms. Some public schools, including nearby Reynoldsburg, chose to require their kids to wear khaki pants (or shorts) and sports shirts in school colors. But there’s a huge cultural gap between khakis and sports shirts, and determining what’s acceptable hair style.
When I was in law school one of the standard process of questioning was “whatabouts”. As we split legal hairs in class, we pushed our arguments to extremes. So, for example, if a student was Buddhist and shaved his head, can a school enforce a “hair policy” designed to prevent shaved heads (skinheads)? What about an Orthodox Jewish student with side curls, or a Jamaican Rastafarian? Can school rules legally infringe on religious freedom?
But if a “religious exemption” is placed in the “hair code”, what about a cultural one? Should a Native American student be required to follow the “Barber Hills” rule? And if not him, then shouldn’t an African American student be able to claim the same exception? Should a transgendered girl be required to have a haircut – and what rule applies?
This issue just isn’t worth all the energy, effort that could better be applied to improving student achievement or even keeping kids safe from violence. It’s not matter of discipline, it’s a process of cultural “bullying”: fit in, or face the consequences.
What Matters
I was an educator, and for several years was directly responsible for discipline in a public high school. I was around when boys started to wear – oh my goodness – earrings! My big discovery was that individualism didn’t seem to influence discipline. We had big problems: drug use, kids acting out on their emotions with violence, kids quietly failing school. Those were so much more important than how long hair was (or whether it was pink, green or brown). Rather the guy with a Mohawk who felt positive about it, than the unknown kid falling into despair.
For those who think hair will “disrupt the educational environment”, the critical phrase from Tinker v Des Moines, the Supreme Court case about student First Amendment rights; here’s my experience. The only folks really disrupted, are the parents picking up kids after school, the “old school” administrators in the office, and a few teachers. And all of them are “adults”, who ought to know better, and get over it. Who isn’t disrupted? It’s the other kids in the classroom. They don’t care about hair, or “holey” jeans, or even the “furry” kid with a tail.
They are the only ones that matter.
