Gerardo Garcia Jr – a fellow hair guy
in another inspirational story of youth gone wild and letting no good deed go unpunished, i present for your momentary attention, one mister gerardo garcia junior.
gerardo got a wacky idea that he would grow his hair to donate to locks of love, to make pediatric chemo and burn patients feel a little better along a very rough journey.
this, as you may or may not be aware, is something i do myself, and something i support wholeheartedly. in fact, i’m overdue for a hair harvest myself – i’ll be sending matching sets of 16-inch braids here “any day now” when i come up with an appropriately dramatic publicity stunt.
so what brings gerardo to my attention? he’s not allowed to do it.
it seems that the school district in which mr. garcia attends high school has a dress code, and part of that dress code is that boys aren’t allowed to have hair past their shoulders or over their eyes.
School dress code sparks debate [the valley star, september 1, 2004]Harlingen Superintendent Linda Wade, who had to enforce the school dress code, said she did find it difficult to order Garcia to cut his hair.
“This was certainly a difficult decision to make,” Wade said. “On one hand, we have this young man doing something that shows responsibility and enforcing everything we try and teach our kids in school.
“But my job is to enforce a criteria set forth to create the best atmosphere for learning that fosters respect for adults and rules and prepares students for the work place.”
so, congratulations, ms. wade, you have taught the lesson that enforcing arbitrary rules is more important that considering the circumstances of the issue at hand. and you have done so in great form.
but all that was weeks ago – the reason it came to me is that the ap wire carried the news [ab via abc news, september 16, 2004] that the school board denied gerardo garcia’s appeal.
instead, the school board decided that the dress code was more important than the inspired efforts of a teenager, and offered to buy out his good intentions with a $500 donation to the american cancer society and the laughable title of school liason.
the local paper’s editorial and letters to the editor on the subject is worth a quick read.
gerardo garcia“They just can’t see that I want to make a difference,” he said. “There are already plenty of organizations that give money.
i see it. i applaud it.