I'm with Elizabeth Taylor and the tattooed guy in the wifebeater

So in the Land of the Free--Mesquite, Texas--a four-year-old boy is not being allowed into pre-kindergarten classes at Floyd Elementary School (not this one set in the past in its own way) because his hair violates the school board's dress code. The boy's dad is pissed.

So what's wrong with his hair? Is it purple? Does he have a swastika shaved into his head?

No.

It's longer than his ears.

Look at him: is this not an adorable child?

And I know what you're thinking. No, this isn't a story from the Onion, it's a real live true story. The Elementary School Dress Code of the Mesquite Independent School District's (a public school district) states that boys may not have hair longer than their ears, and is dead set on enforcing those rules.

If this were Canada, resolving this would be a quick trip (or even just a letter) to a Human Rights Tribunal for discrimination by sex/gender. Hopefully some national media exposure will pull this school into a century where people have rights and freedoms (the 18th century seems to be the most applicable, if we're considering boys with long hair and Bills of Rights).

For all the problems public schools have in the US, it's bizarre that they even have resources to deal with issues this petty.

But then schools don't encourage creativity anyway, so maybe they are doing their job.

- RG>