Placentia : Policy Change Allows Schools to Bar Punk Look

Pink hair is out. And so are earrings for boys.

The Placentia school board Monday night amended the district’s student dress and grooming policy to allow schools to ban a new fad: earrings on boys.

“When kids will make fun of other kids, such as a boy wearing an earring, it’s disruptive,” said Donna Bylund, the school superintendent’s administrative assistant.

Although the school’s grooming policy, adopted in 1973, does not specify do’s and dont’s, it calls for clothing, accessories and grooming that “do not affect the rules of decency or reflect negatively on or detract from any phase of the educational program.”

Bylund said school administrators have asked students to go home and change when their clothing or grooming, such as colorful punk hair, is construed as disruptive. The new policy allows schools to ban “certain symbols, jewels or insignia that can be reasonably construed” as disruptive.

During an earlier hearing, one parent told the Placentia Unified School District board that her son’s rights were being violated under Title IX, an education amendment that bans discrimination. Bylund said no one spoke against the revised policy at Monday’s meeting.