It was a short haircut, a fauxhawk. The parents cut it even shorter, giving him a flat top. Without permission, the school buzzed his hair. Totally unacceptable.

I, like you, Richard, was raised in a much stricter environment and went to a school that dictated everything. Believe it or not, we had to stand in line each morning before the teacher while she inspected us to see if we were clean, clothes pressed, girls had a clean handkerchief, boys w/shirts tucked in, no hair ornaments for girls except one barrette. It goes on and on. We did it because it was school policy. And that was just grade school. In high school, the principal met us at the door w/a yardstick and he measured the girls' skirts. If they were too short, we were sent home. If the boys wore jeans, they were sent home, too. However, I guarantee you that if a teacher had cut my hair w/out telling my parents, my father would've gone to that school in a heartbeat and rightfully so.

Today there are kids wearing their pants below their derrieres and Tshirts w/vulgarity on them and they get away w/it. The mother of one kid in Cleveland actually considered bringing suit against the school district because her teenage daughter got sent home for wearing pajamas w/feet in them! She said that it was casual attire. This kid w/the fauxhawk, however, was 6 YEARS OLD. What the school did was bullying and they overstepped their bounds w/the parents who should've had the guts and common sense to have a discussion w/the school rather than to say "do what you see fit". That gave the school an out because there was too much room for interpretation. I'm not a coddler and I don't jump on the bandwagon when it comes to kids. As a matter of fact, I think too many are indulged and self-entitled. But this was just plain wrong on the part of the school but the parents also bear responsibility in all of it, too.