School Suspensions 

In the past few months there have been many unnecessary school suspensions made for pointless reasons. From suspending a high school student for saying bless you in class to a third grader suspended for shaving her hair off. 

According to Dylan Stableford, in the month of August 2014, a senior attending Dyer County High School was given an ISS, (In-School Suspension), for saying "Bless you" to a fellow classmate during class. Kendra Turner, the high school senior, reportedly told the news that the phrase "Bless you"  was forbidden in her teacher's class; as well as other words like "hang out" and "dumb." 

Kendra Turner was raised in a family that taught her to be polite and to display manners when needed to. Saying the phrase "Bless you" to a person that sneezed is one of the manners she was taught to do. Having said that, it doesn't make sense for the teacher to suspend Turner for being polite towards another student and showing manners to him/her. 

Turner also stated that her teacher prohibited to say any God-like things in her classroom. Turner then argued,"...we have a constitutional right. ...It's to all right to defend God and it's our constitutional right, because we have a freedom of religion and a freedom of speech." 

However, Kendra's quote on the constitution didn't convince her teacher at all. Instead she was sent to the administrator's office where she spent the rest of the period in In-School Suspension.

Picture of Kendra Turner's teacher's white board that lists all of the words and phrases banned in her classroom. (Credit: CNN)


Another case of unnecessary school suspension was issued in the month of May in 2014. As reported by Melissa Sher, Kamryn Renfro, a third grader was suspended from school for shaving off her hair. 

Kamryn Renfro didn't shave off her hair just to try it, she shaved her hair off for a brave, kind and sensitive reason, That reason was to support her friend, 11-year old Delaney Clements, who is fighting cancer. Delaney was reported to have been diagnosed with neuroblastoma since 2010. 

What Kamryn did was heroic because in the third grade she made up an adult-like decision to shave her hair off to support her friend so she wouldn't feel like she's fighting cancer alone. I myself would never have the guts to shave all my hair off like Kamryn did - and especially at that age. 

Almost all people would consider Renfro's action to be heroic, but her school thought otherwise. Her school, Caprock Academy, suspended her for shaving her hair off because it was a violation against the school's strict dress code. Her school didn't even allow her to go inside and attend class due to her shaved head. 

The website for Caprock Academy's dress code states, "Ladies Hair: Should be neatly combed or styled. No shaved heads. Hair accessories must be red, white, navy, black, or brown. Neat barrettes, headbands, and "scrunchies" are permissible. Hair should not be arranged or colored so as to draw undue attention to the student. Hair should be natural looking and conservative in its color. Radical changes in hair color during the school year are unacceptable." 

I believe that every school should have a dress code and should enforce it. However, Caprock Academy's dress code for hair promotes being conservative and formal all the time. To me this restricts the children from having the freedom to express themselves with the way they want to style themselves, let alone with their hair. 

Dyer County High School and Caprock Academy are only two of a number of other schools that give unfair and unnecessary school suspensions to their students. Schools that act like Dyer County High School and Caprock Academy should rethink their suspensions and realize if what the student(s) did is actually a valid reason to be suspended for.