Principal denies appeal to hair-length rule

Los Fresnos brothers lose bid for readmission to Resaca Middle School

By Laura B. Martinez The Brownsville Herald

The mother of two Los Fresnos students placed on “in-school suspension” at their middle school for failing to comply with the dress code policy will take her complaint to district administrators after the principal refused to let the boys back on campus.

Deborah Burns received a letter from Resaca Middle School Principal Stephen Rosales stating he had considered her complaint and reviewed all the evidence, but had to deny her request.

In his letter, Rosales said his job was to ensure that the school’s policy was followed. Failure to do that would make him “derelict” in his duties to the school and district, Burns said.

In his letter, Rosales said part of the evidence admitted in the Level I hearing contained information from the Chickasaw Nation Web site. In the evidence “no literature was found that requires Chickasaw children must wear their hair long in multiple corn rolls. In fact, pictures displayed at the website, depict male children with short neatly trimmed hair,” Rosales writes in the letter.

“Of the few older men depicted, they either had a Mohawk or a single braid, which is more indicative of the historical photos available for the Chikasaw (sic) Nation. Again, no literature was found that required or dictated how they should style their hair,” the letter reads.

For confidentially reasons, Rosales said he could not provide a copy of the letter to The Brownsville Herald, but he verified the letter’s contents

Burns will take her grievance to Level II, which calls for a meeting with Los Fresnos schools Superintendent Sylvia P. Atkinson and a hearing officer to discuss her case. If this doesn’t work out, Burns can take an appeal to the school board.

Atkinson said Rosales discussed the letter with her and although she will sit in on a Level II hearing if Burns requests one, she is not the one who will make the decision. That would be left up to the hearing officer, Atkinson said Wednesday.

Atkinson said Burns has up to 10 days from Tuesday to request a Level II hearing and as of Wednesday afternoon, none had been made.

“Until a request is made, no (hearing) date can be set,” Atkinson said.

Burns, who was in Oklahoma on Wednesday, said she planned to contact the district today to request a hearing.

“Their culture shouldn’t be our culture and their traditions shouldn’t be our traditions. Why should we have to change our tradi-tions because of their tradition? I don’t think that’s fair,” Burns said.

Skyler, 12, and Rodney Burns, 14, were placed on “in school suspension” on Aug. 23 for failing to comply with the school’s dress code, which dictates the hair of male middle school students must be above the collar.

The Burns family says their shoulder-length braided hair is representative of their Chickasaw Indian heritage, which also in-cludes African American and Caucasian. The boys haven’t had a haircut in two years.

The boy’s mother filed a grievance against the school after her sons were placed on ISS and asked that her sons be allowed to grow their hair long and style it short to meet the code.

More than a week after the boys were assigned to ISS their mother pulled them out of school, preferring to teach them at home.

The Burns’ saga prompted a national petition supporting them to circulate last week online, asking for signatures to “end cultural bias toward Native American students.”

Also, Dennis Banks, an Ojibwa or Chippewa Indian, actor and co-founder of the American Indian Movement, met with district of-ficials to discuss American Indian cultures, particularly the significance of hairstyle and length.

In an interview, Banks said almost every native tribe shares the belief that cutting hair is taboo.