Native American boy fights Texas school over hair cut

June 29, 11:03 AMPortland Humanist ExaminerMicha J. Stone

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Adriel Arocha

A Native American boy is fighting a Texas school district for the right to keep his long hair. A small rural school district in Fort Bend County Texas wants to force Adriel Arocha to cut his hair in compliance with the terms of the school district's dress code.

Hence, the Needville school district and a determined mother are tangled in a dispute over hair. Michelle Betenbaugh says her son, Adriel Arocha, wears his hair long because of religious beliefs tied to his Native American heritage. The dispute began last summer, when Kenney Arocha and Michelle Betenbaugh informed Needville ISD officials of their plans to move from Stafford and have their son, Adriel Arocha, attend kindergarten in the district.

Made aware of the couple’s and the boy’s views on the practice by some Native American men of wearing their hair long, school officials told Adriel’s parents he would have to cut his hair according to terms in Needville ISD’s dress code. The parents refused, and a drawn out court battle followed.

The leaders of the Needville school district have strict rules about long hair on boys and don't see any reason to make an exception in this case. Needville's dress and grooming code, which does not allow hair past the collar or eyes for boys, is similar to other rural districts' in the Houston region.

The case illustrates that some rural Texas school districts have strict grooming codes that reflect the traditional or old-fashioned values of small-town America. Yet the Texas school district has no right to force Adriel to cut his hair. The supposed old fashioned values are simply tools of oppression and conformity. Indeed, the whole thing is a throwback to 1970. It is amazing that there are still such ugly and intolerant backwaters of American society.

Six months ago a federal judge ruled the school district violated the constitutional rights of Adriel, a kindergarten student, for not letting him wear his hair according to his Native American religious beliefs, Needville Independent School District officials have appealed the ruling before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a recently filed appeal brief, Needville ISD’s attorney said the judge’s ruling “hijacked” the district’s authority to “regulate its population.”

To "regulate its population"? Is this a school or a concentration camp? The whole episode is outrageous and screams injustice. Adriel has been punished all year long for his hair, forced to be alone in a room with a teacher, not allowed to attend class or socialize with peers at school. Since the sixth day of the 2008-2009 school year, Needville Elementary School officials began placing Adriel in in-school suspension for coming to school with long hair (hair tied in two braids worn outside his shirt).

“Upon arriving at his classroom every morning, Adriel is escorted away from his classmates and into another room where he sits with his ISS teacher for the rest of the school day,” the suit states.

“Adriel endures this segregation for over seven hours every day with no opportunity to engage in group learning or social play with other children during class or on the playground,” the suit states, adding that the Texas Education Code says ISS can extend for no longer than three days."

The cruel and ugly intolerance is mind boggling. Aside from religious discrimination it is also sexual discrimination, because girls are not expected to keep their hair short. It is an attempt to deny history and cling to a past filled with oppression and discrimination. More than this, it is punishing a 5 year old child and depriving the child of an education. How do such monsters live with themselves?

The shame of Fort Bend county Texas is great. The Needville school district is an ugly, backwards, and oppressive institution. To isolate and punish a 5 year old child for the length of his hair is monstrous. Words cannot express the indignation and outrage of such an injustice.