Grandmother Upset After Superintendent Insists Her 4-Year-Old Grandson Must Cut His Hair Or Wear a Dress

Oct 16, 2019

By traditional societal standards, most people tend to associate short hair with boys and long hair with girls. However, this is not usually considered a rule in most organizations.

Unfortunately, some people insist on conforming to gender stereotypes, and this has recently caused some controversy at a public school. A young boy named Michael was recently a target of gender stereotyping at his elementary school in East Texas because he had long hair.

The superintendent of the school system told Michael's grandmother Randi Woodley that she had to modify the boy's hairstyle to fit a more male-oriented appearance. The way he explained the situation to her was disturbing. He gave her an ultimatum stating that she had only three choices in the matter. He could cut it short, wear it up in a braided style, or wear a dress to school and tell people he was a girl.

When questioned about this, the superintendent said he was following the school's codes for dress and appearance for students. The rules state that male students' hair length cannot extend below the top of a T-shirt collar.

Of course, this doesn't explain why he would insist that the boy would have to identify as a girl when not following the hair length code. Mrs. Woodley responded to the claims by saying "We shouldn't even be talking about this at any age because hair has nothing to do with learning" to KOLO.

There have been other incidents like this at the school such as the case involving the son of Kambryn Cox who had long dreadlocks reports ABC News. The administration refused to allow the boy to have long hair even he wore it in a ponytail.

The two women have stated that they plan to make efforts to persuade the school board to change the hair length rules. The superintendent has refused to make comments about this proposition.

Do you think hair length rules should be enforced in elementary schools? Let us know in the comments, and send links to this story for your friends so that they can participate in the discussion.