I would guess none of them had beards.
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Valedictorian barred from his graduation due to having facial hair in Louisiana
- Thread starter Dalek
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I would guess none of them had beards.
Ragnorok64
Member
He shouldn't earn a scholarship simply for not shaving. Unless the American Mustache Institute decides to give him one. I'm sure he can earn plenty for his grades.
CornBurrito
Member
Uh he graduated. He just couldn't attend the graduation event.
uh I know what I said corn babe, thanks.
Ragnorok64
Member
He was able to attend the event, he just wasn't allowed to walk across the stage or give a speech it seems. He had to watch from the stands.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Me neither.
Why should anyone follow an arbitrary, idiotic, useless, outdated rule?
The school can fuck right off.
Hahahaha
Of course it's insane. It has no basis in any rational thought.
Who gets to determine that? How des this sort of New Age school operate in your mind?
People that wanted to walk followed the rule.
Glass Shark
Banned
It doesn't make sense that he was allowed to have his facial hair the whole school year and then this is the moment they decide to enforce the rules.
So petty.
So petty.
Based on the results, so that they can do their graduation walk.
TheSlySoul
Member
Yeah this irks me why have a dress code just for graduation?
My schools had them year long and graduation was no different.
I can understand a bit keeping him from walking, but they also took his awards as well. Why not just let him keep those?
True I guess. I agree with his side, I would have probably just not walked. You could still pick up your degree and any scholarships not walking in my old schools.
perineumlick
Member
He also shouldn't have been denied a graduation ceremony just because he had facial hair, but rules are rules, right? It's stupid as hell.
Maybe they were trying not to be overly oppressive with enforcement. Being able to do your facial hair how you want all year in exchange for shaving for one day seems pretty fair to me.
As someone that graduated and had family in the Louisiana public school system in a backwards parish, my guess would be that the school largely agreed the policy was stupid(hence why they ignored enforcing it) but graduation become some arbitrary line they felt uncomfortable crossing or there was a renewed push to start enforcing the rule.
Frankly as a graduate in a school and parish with that type of silly policy, I would of sucked it up for one week of graduation if I was allowed to break the rules for my entire High School life prior to that.
Welcome to Louisiana. It is what it is though. This guy was actually allowed to break the rule for 99% of his High School life though. Wish that could of been my parish.
Zoe
Member
Public schools set all kinds of arbitrary dress code rules. No facial hair was strictly enforced when I was growing up.
It was a different time back then though. A big part of it was allowing an easy way to identify students versus people who have no business being on campus.
Are people not reading the OP? They don't. They have a parish wide rule for no beards that the school didn't enforce for students but for whatever unspecified reason decided they needed to do so for graduation. 14 were made aware the enforcement would affect them and 13 shaved. This guy didn't.
Ragnorok64
Member
Doesn't matter if you think the rule is stupid. It's dress code and was know well ahead of time.
That's fair I suppose. I grew up in WA and have lived elsewhere, but every place that I've lived in has been very permissive with facial hair.
perineumlick
Member
Did they explain why they let him break the rule all year?
I don't think they have made an official statement. Logic tells me because they clearly didn't believe in it, but given how things like this go in Louisiana, I would place money that this school will no longer be looking the other way with regards to facial hair.
This guys little stand is probably going to get the ire of all his under classmen who will probably have to shave their facial hair for the rest of their High School lives.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
Assuming the obvious explanation of "School found some bullshit to ding a black valedictorian over" is untrue, it's probably the case that, day-to-day, they don't give a shit, but graduation is attended by people that WOULD ding the school over non-enforcement of said rule.
Ragnorok64
Member
The article answers exactly that question.
RockTurtle
Member
as a man that cannot grow a beard, let alone a moustache, this does tug at my heartstrings some what
CornBurrito
Member
As if clothing choices are based on rational thought.
Why is a suit professional but not jeans and a tshirt? Explain rationally.
GraceflAnger
Member
That's what it seems like.
Until you spend time actually reading the article and thread.
Should we add a new entry to The List, as "Having a beard while black", or we can add this under "Being successful while black"?
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Anyone that thinks that selective enforcement of "Rules" is anything but a thin coat over racism and discrimination in general is a tool.
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Anyone that thinks that selective enforcement of "Rules" is anything but a thin coat over racism and discrimination in general is a tool.
RockTurtle
Member
again, are we reading the same article or do we have any concrete proof or at least some visual aids besides "my gut tells me so" that this is somehow a slight against a minority getting valedictorian and not just typical mishandling of school policies?
Also my school, while public, also had an uniform policy and grooming rules.
if you did not wear your uniform, you were allowed to wear business attire as an alternative.
well then.
Also my school, while public, also had an uniform policy and grooming rules.
if you did not wear your uniform, you were allowed to wear business attire as an alternative.
well then.
I would be shocked if most parishes don't have similar rules. As to their origin and justification? It seems to be a complicated web. That has components of academic studies, politics, fear, religion, income concerns, cultural preferences, racism and education theory.
In other words:
"If you don't agree with my opinion that I formed after clearly not reading the article in full or the thread where people have provided further context, then you are a tool."
LookAtMeGo
Member
So fucking stupid
I did read the article, which wasn't even needed because the OP practically posted all of it.
School has their story, student has his, and i'm not exactly keen on believing the school's side entirely.
There's selective enforcement at work, or is the student just lying? Or the school has exclusive rules? Where i live districts set rules like those, not single schools.
Stupid rules get bent all the time for good students by school staff. That's what selective enforcement is.
“Our school board has a policy that does not allow any facial hair on male students,”
How is that selective enforcement?
This school isn't where you live, so your anecdotal evidence is worthless.
Again, this school is 80% black. How is enforcing a school rule racist? Unless you believe the rule itself is racist.
You have no evidence this happened in this case, so what is your point?
But how can I shitpost and make jokes about how everyone is so racist in this situation if I actually read the article and thread and know the facts? It's a lot easier to just post "Having a beard while Black" or "Can't let a black man be validictorian" because that gives me cool points.
Seriously, this thread is fucking embarrassing.
So, everyone knew you had to shave. Regardless of how you feel about the rule that is the rule. 14 kids showed up and were told to shave and 13 decided to do so and one did not. The majority of the school is black. But yes let's all accuse the school of being racist becaus jeez, what other conclusion can you make? I mean a student was asked to follow the rules, and he decided not too. Not that complicated guys and gals.
It is only selective in that prior to this they did not enforce the governing rule. This kid wasn't singled out because of race. There is no evidence of that whatsoever.
This school, in a district where no beards are the rules governing them, decided that graduation was the point they felt a line needed to be drawn and the policy to be enforced. Right or wrong on any number of levels they made that call. 14 people who this would affect were made aware ahead of time. 13 complied, 1 chose not to despite multiple pleas for him to do so. He knew the consequences and made his choice.
You make the assertion this can only be explained by racism, which is absurd and not supported by any evidence we have.
If effectively this is a school-by-school policy, i'll admit i misunderstood and take the L. That very much sounded like those other students who were allowed were under the same policy.
This school operates in a parish(or what would be called a district in most other states). The parish rules governing public schools state that students are not allowed to have beards. This school disregarded this rule and allowed students to have beards. So for 99% of this students academic life at this school he was allowed to break the rules with no consequence.
However, come graduation time, this particular school felt compelled to enforce the parish rule to all graduating students. 14 were made aware that the enforcement would affect them, 13 complied. 1 continued to hold out and refuse despite knowing the consequences. He dug in and the school did what they said they would do.
This was all in the article.
Oddly enough, a very similar thing happened to me. I went to pick up my cap and gown from the school office and the associate Dean refused to give them to me until I shaved. And he meant that very minute. He gave me a can of shaving cream and a razor. When I ducked into the restroom to shave, lo and behold, there were several other guys shaving. And I had just a couple patchy wisps of facial hair, less than the guy in the OP.
Zoe
Member
That's not what happened.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
What? New Age?
No seriously... what?
A rule is arbitrary, stupid and useless, if it's there without a good, rational reason to exist. A rule about being respectful of other students and not punching them has a good reason to exist. A rule about not showing up naked at school, and wearing clean clothes, has a good, rational reason to exist.
A rule about preventing hair stubble on some guy's chin doesn't. Or maybe you can come up with a rational reason for such a rule to exist.
Good question.
No, you explain. Why should I argue something I don't believe in? Waste of time.
DragonSworne
Banned
If not the facial hair, the school would have found another reason not to let him get on stage.
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