Look at the cut of ya!

3 boys yesterday were told that their haircuts were against school rules and that they couldn't sit their exams in the school. The boys have 'skinhead' haircuts. They were given the option to sit the exams in another school, but one of the boys refused on principle.
I remember when I was at school, many moons ago, and it was a hot topic even then. It's always going to cause controversy when you’ve got teenagers wanting to push the boundaries of the rules set on them by the school.
I myself had a mullet which was frowned upon and my friend Finbar had lovely flowing locks too, but nothing was actually said to us about it. Then I grew a beard! It was the summer of the first Feile and I was feeling quite cool about it at the time. Anyway, I’ll never forget the look on the principles face when he saw me in the school yard the first day back. It was his first day as principle and he was a sound fellow so he said hello and had a big smile and looked very happy with himself in his new position until… he realised it was going to be his job to tell me to have a shave. Then you could physically see his stomach churn and his face drop. I found it quite amusing at the time. I new I’d have to have a shave and only waited to see how they would handle it. They didn’t know I didn’t really mind so it was three days before they came up with a game plan.
I was told that while “my beard was great and I’d done a fine job of growing one…if I was let keep it then other lads that wouldn’t be able to grow a decent ‘tidy’ one would still try, and would end up making them look scruffy so for the good of the school, I should have a shave”. I thought this was a fascinating way to have approached me. Great psychological manoeuvre. However, being one step ahead I said “well as you agree that strictly speaking my beard is fine, and it’s only if the beard makes someone scruffy looking that they need to shave it off, then surely it’s your job to deal with those people and not mine?” Hmmm…well the debate went on for a while but eventually I agreed that I would have a shave but only because I felt like doing it myself.
The key thing here was that the man was capable of speaking to a student in an adult way and we came away from the situation having a respect for each other. This is often not the case; 16 year old boys are often not capable of having a rational debate and unfortunately neither are many of the school principles. This has been proven once again by the ignorance of the principle in this news item. Some things will never change!