Kanaan VyShonne Barton says he’s following all other school rules but shouldn’t have to cut his hair: ‘My locs represent strength’
A Black student at a Mormon university in Hawaii said he has been told by staff to cut his shoulder-length hair because it does not adhere to school policies, he said.
Kanaan VyShonne Barton, a student at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, told the Salt Lake Tribune he has been engaged in a battle with the school since September over the length of his hair, which he has refused to cut.
The university requires students to follow an “honor code”, which states hair should be “neatly trimmed”, although the code has no official guidance on length.
I started school in the mid 60’s and we never had rules for hair.
We did have idiotic rules that boys got to do shop and girls had to do “home ec”, short for learning how to cook, clean and mend for your future husband.
For boys, we had marching, bayonet drills, grenade throwing, trench digging, map reading, gas defense, camouflage, trap setting, ambush techniques, war games, firing guns, and blowing stuff up.
For girls: dressing wounds, making beds, and learning how to get pregnant.