From cartoonist Clay Jones about “Elementary Mohawks,” Madonna, and the irony of Arrowhead Elementary
When I was a kid, I considered school dress codes as teachers’ punishment for not being as cool as their students. When I was in high school, the biggest concern for teachers was girls dressing like Madonna from the “Lucky Star” video. I was concerned too, but only that those girls wouldn’t ever talk to me.
I understand dress code. I’m not entirely against them. Someone has to tell kids to pull their pants up.
Arrowhead Elementary School in Washington County, Utah, dismissed a seven-year-old second grader last week for sporting a Mohawk. The school administration considered the Mohawk distracting. Check out the link. Does that look distracting? Maybe I’m jaded. I see kids with weird haircuts all the time. The only time I’m concerned is when a child has a mullet, and I’m worried about what type of parents would do that to their child. The Mohawk is kinda cool.
Maybe it is something distracting in the second grade, but I don’t really buy it.
this child is of Seneca descent. That’s a Native American tribe. The school requested a letter from the New York-based Seneca Nation of Indians to confirm the haircut is of cultural significance. Of course they responded and in a much more diplomatic way than I’m posting here, stated, “Leave the kid alone, and stop discriminating against him.”
You would think those in the education business would be educated on such matters. You would especially think those in the education business at a school named Arrowhead Elementary would be somewhat familiar with what’s of cultural significance to Native Americans.
That’s some irony difficult to top in a cartoon.
At the end of the day, it’s just a haircut. The school might want to concern themselves more with what’s in his head than on top.
RELATED STORIES:
Defending school uniforms and dress codes: It’s about more than just “distractions”
