Zero Tolerance: Mohawk

Another dumb Zero Tolerance event:

A Michigan high school student was banned from competing in his school track meet unless he got rid of the pink Mohawk he’s sporting to honor his mother who has breast cancer.

Mike Barker, a junior at West Iron County High School in Iron River, Mich., told FoxNews.com he was told his new hair style did not meet the school’s grooming and appearance policy, and was told by his coach and then the school principal that he could not compete in his team’s meet on Thursday.

“[My coach] told me I can’t have pink hair with Mohawk to support my mom with breast cancer,” Barker, 17, told FoxNews.com. “I want this to change. That’s my goal.”

…His mother, Wendy Pawlicki, told FoxNews.com she was all the more outraged because her son had been to track practice for weeks with his Mohawk—it was only when he dyed it pink that he was suddenly not allowed to compete in his sport.

In response to FoxNews.com’s email request for comment, West Iron County High School principal Mike Berutti emailed back the following statement from the superintendent:

“The West Iron County Public Schools supports the needs of the students to express themselves, as long as their expression does not interfere with the educational process. We also strive to balance individualism of athletes with the concept of team that fit within our athletic code. The athletic department is going to work with the student and parents to resolve this issue. The student was not dismissed from the team and we welcome his participation in the future.

When I was in high-school we had one student with a mohawk about twice the size of this. He did often cause a bit of disruption to class, not because of his huge, brightly-colored hair, but because with Mohawks often come affinity to Anarchy and punk culture. He simply didn’t respect authority, and THAT disrupts class way more than a silly haircut. He didn’t keep the mohawk forever, and oddly he was just as disruptive with a number of hairstyles.

Also I’ll add when I played tennis I used to wear a big panama hat to play. Two reasons for this, #1 it kept the sun out of my eyes no matter where it was compared to the narrower brim of a ball-cap most players wore, and #2 it was flamboyant and stood out. This would often distract other players just enough to give me a small advantage.

Better players weren’t bothered by it, but lower players it gave me an advantage.

Couple in the fact that this was done for a good cause really shows how much shaming the schools should take.

Really, does a hair style disrupt learning much? Maybe the first two days, but honestly it sounds like teachers looking for excuses.

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13 Responses to Zero Tolerance: Mohawk

  1. rd says:

    It is not zero tolerance.
    It is ZERO INTELLIGENCE.

    And these education majors all have masters and doctorates in “Education.”

  2. rd says:

    And if his friends do not show up at school sporting brightly colored mohawks, they are all wussies with a capital P.

  3. Sailorcurt says:

    I guess my question would be: do you oppose dress and grooming standards in school?

    If you do, then I can’t argue with your position.

    If you agree with the standards, but think the rules should be changed for the “right” reasons, then I wholeheartedly disagree. You may as well not have the standards if anyone can break them because they can claim to be in support of some approved cause.

    And which causes are approved? Which are not approved?

    Or is it just that the standards are waived for anyone with a family member who has a serious medical problem or condition? Does this mean the school needs to have access to their kid’s parents medical records so they can verify the nature and seriousness of the illness, or should they just take the kid’s word for it? Or maybe a note from the parent would be sufficient (I was VERY good at forging those when I was in high school)?

    What’s the cutoff for seriousness of illness? Do they have to be terminal is it enough that the disease is potentially fatal (pneumonia comes to mind)? Do they have to be in treatment, or just have an initial diagnosis? What if they go into remission or begin recovering, does the waiver get revoked immediately, or only after they’ve completed the treatment and been issued a clean bill of health? Does the parent have an obligation to inform the school once they’ve reached the stage that warrants revocation of the waiver (not necessary if the school is granted access to the medical records)?

    The whole thing is silly. If the school has standards, they should be enforced. If a student wants to deviate from those standards, they should request to do so in advance…not just show up one day with a purple afro and expect everyone to accept that they are “showing support for my third cousin twice removed who has just been diagnosed with a herniated disk”.

    I understand the urge to teach our kids not just to follow the rules blindly and to resist tyranny, but the lesson should also be driven home that such rebellion generally has its price. If we are teaching them that rebelling against authority, given that the cause is righteous, should be expected to be consequence free, we are erring badly.

    • Weerd Beard says:

      You might have guessed. School dress codes should match simple conduct code and decency standards. So no shirt, no shoes, no service. Also you aren’t allowed to say bad words on school grounds so your clothes can’t do it either.

      Period, full stop. If you want to wear a tuxedo (which would be just as distracting as a mohawk) or dress like a stewbum who just fell out of a box car. I don’t care so long as you behave and make an effort to learn.

      • Sailorcurt says:

        In that case, I apologize for my rant for it was to no purpose.

        I actually support dress codes in certain cases. My kids both went to school in inner city, majority black schools with a strong gang presence. Strictly enforced dress codes helped keep the gangs subdued and, in my opinion, prevented the troublemakers from using outrageous clothing to disrupt the school. These were serious problems before institution of the dress codes.

        Did it keep the kids from joining gangs? No. Did it prevent all the problems? No. But it helped, and it helped in making it easier for kids like mine, who were there to learn, to accomplish their goals with a little less interference and distraction.

        My kids are both doing just fine, both are gainfully employed, productive citizens raising families of their own, so I really don’t think the dress codes of their youth caused any permanent damage.

        Then again…perhaps their strict upbringing, including dress codes in school, damaged their individualism, because neither of them has a pink mohawk. I should be ashamed of myself.

        • Weerd Beard says:

          I certainly can agree with gang colors being prohibited so long as A) they are ACTUAL gang colors, and not some Jekum scare. B) The code is enforced with law enforcement profiles of ACTUAL gang colors.

          Red is my favorite color, that does not make me a Blood. Blue is my second favorite, doesn’t make me a Crip, ect.

          Not that the gangs even wear these colors anymore because it makes the cop’s job too easy.

    • Archer says:

      “I understand the urge to teach our kids not just to follow the rules blindly and to resist tyranny, but the lesson should also be driven home that such rebellion generally has its price. If we are teaching them that rebelling against authority, given that the cause is righteous, should be expected to be consequence free, we are erring badly.”

      Correct. However, our children must also be raised with the understanding that some causes are righteous enough that the consequences are worth facing to facilitate the desired change, and the wisdom (and courage) to make that decision. I think we do a tremendous disservice to our kids when we teach about the founding of the United States (i.e. the American Revolution) without covering the consequences the Founders faced (i.e. certain death as traitors to the King, with their families being left penniless and branded as the progeny of traitors). The Founders knew the consequences, but also knew their cause was righteous enough to be worth the risk. I don’t recall any history class or textbook I’ve ever had covering this topic, though it seems obvious now. (Come to think of it, the potential consequences faced by the Woman Suffrage and Civil Rights movements were glossed over, too.)

      • Sailorcurt says:

        Agreed. It’s easy to be a rebel when there is no threat of repercussions. What makes it difficult is standing up for the right thing when you know (or even strongly suspect) you’re going to get your butt kicked for it.

        It’s similar to the definition of courage. Courage doesn’t mean your not afraid. It takes no courage to do something that doesn’t scare you. Courage is being scared, but steeling your will and doing what needs to be done in spite of it.

        I don’t think the kid was wrong in expressing his support for his mother in the way he did, but I also don’t think the school was wrong in assessing consequences for his choice.

        There were rules. He broke them. There were consequences. That’s the way it works.

        Bravo to him for his support of his mother and being willing to sacrifice to show that support. I also can’t fault him for trying to change a rule that he disagrees with. That’s also the way it’s supposed to work. But I simply can’t find fault for the school in enforcing its rules in this instance. There are cases of “zero tolerance” being taken to the extreme, but I disagree that this is one of them.

  4. Archer says:

    “The West Iron County Public Schools supports the needs of the students to express themselves, as long as their expression does not interfere with the educational process.”

    Historically, this means students are not allowed to express themselves as anything other than lock-stepping members of the Collective Student Body. Besides, an athletic event is not part of the normal educational process, so his having a pink Mohawk should be a non-starter; it did not disrupt the school day, so it shouldn’t disrupt a track competition.

    “We also strive to balance individualism of athletes with the concept of team that fit within our athletic code. The athletic department is going to work with the student and parents to resolve this issue.”

    “Balance” to this people typically means no individualism. After all, “There is no ‘I’ in ‘Team.'” It doesn’t appear – according to the news story – that the athletic department did a damn thing to work with the student and parents. It sounds like they hung him out to dry.

    As to the concept of team, ask yourself this: In a sport where events are performed individually – such as track – how does prohibiting an individual affect the team? (Hint: If your answer is, “It doesn’t,” you have some extra-curricular learning to do.)

    “The student was not dismissed from the team and we welcome his participation in the future.”

    As long as he’s not disruptive (for some meaning of the word “disruptive”).

    • Weerd Beard says:

      Here’s an interesting personal story. In our school we were required to “Dress Up” on the last school day before an extra-curricular activity. Obviously the big one was the sports teams were required to dress up the day of a big game, or on Friday for a weekend game. I don’t remember the rules for women, but men it was shirt and tie and no jeans. Most of the football basketball, and baseball players HATED the rule and usually pulled a sweater over their tie so they didn’t look “Dorky”. This also applied to competitive bands, which I was part of. The band geeks went the other way. We hit the thrift stores and bought the nicest suits we could afford. I had like 5 of them, and we’d come in dressed to the nines. A bunch of us made the yearbook sitting in class all wearing nice suits and such. We were REWARDED, but we were making a scene. The school just pick who they consider “Good” disruptions and bad.

      • Sailorcurt says:

        I don’t see how you were “making a scene” when you were doing exactly what they asked of you and more.

        It sounds to me like you were setting a good example for others. Perhaps you were trying to be rebellious about it, but to my mind you were actually setting the example of exceeding expectations.

        And this is a bad thing in what way exactly? I wish more kids were rebellious in that way.

    • Sailorcurt says:

      “It doesn’t appear…that the athletic department did a damn thing to work with the student and parents.”

      It didn’t appear to me – according to the news story – that the student and his parents did anything to work with the athletic department either.

      The way it sounded to me is that he just showed up with his mohawk colored pink one day and claimed it was to support his mother. Had he gotten permission to do this in advance, it may have made the whole thing go smoother. Perhaps they could have brought it up to the team to see if they supported him. Heck, maybe the whole team would have colored their hair pink in solidarity…that REALLY would have made a statement of support.

      But this kid just showed up that way with no warning from what I can tell. It seems to me that he gave the coach and/or school little choice in the matter than to handle it the way they did.

      And I absolutely agree that the conduct or appearance of one member of a team can adversely affect the perception of the team as a whole. They let him get away with the mohawk (which I would have had a problem with as his coach)…but that wasn’t good enough for him. Perhaps that just wasn’t getting the attention he thought he deserved? He had to take it a step further. Sorry, but if you want to be an individual you don’t have to participate in team sports. It is a voluntary activity and requires some sacrifices to be a part of. If you want to be a member of a team, you have to follow the rules that the rest of the team follows. Don’t want to follow the rules? No problem. Don’t be a part of the team.

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