a little peeved this morn. child being picked on by the school.

As a public high school teacher in a very ethnically diverse neighborhood let me give my opinion and experiences on this issue. First off let me say that I teach kids with mohawks, frohawks, Beiber cuts, bowl cuts, thunder clouds, etc..... So it's not like I'm not exposed to the beautiful art that is the mohawk. Second let me make it clear that over here in Southern California we have specific issues regarding hairstyles that perhaps are not in line with your area of the nation. With that said let me tell you the fact that the very long mohawk and extra clean sides would not be acceptable in my district either. Why? Because it is a distraction in class, on campus, and in some rare occasions at my site it has been linked to certain very racist movements. Last year I had a kid, great kid mind you, walk in one day with clean shaven sides coupled with a two foot high spiked mohawk right out of some kind of cheap 80's metal band. Despite the fact that he was getting an "A" in my class, was a great kid, etc.... the bottom line is the cut was a major distraction to both myself and others in the room. Everytime he moved his head some kid couldn't see over his cute cut. I couldn't sit him in the back because he couldn't see either so I had to finally move him off to the side and made him print out's of what was on my LCD. Well eventually administration had to contact his parents and requested he at least shorten his mohawk so it wouldn't be so flamboyant. At the same time his parents were notified by the sheriff that certain racist movements had been associated with such a flamboyant haircut and perhaps it would be wise to think twice about sporting such a dramatic hairstyle in our community. The result was they shortened it, he survived, no lawsuits needed, no homeschooling, no violent clashes, etc...... The cut got old, he's now a senior with a mature hairstyle and is going off to a D-1 college next year. End of story.