Hair-Do And Don't

Teens all over Ireland are in the throes of exam time, the last chance to regurgitate memorized facts and move along in the educational line. Score high and you're off to the university of your choice, with enough points to win a coveted spot in your chosen field of study. Score low, and it's off to learn auto mechanics or chip frying.

Ordinarily, a concerned parent would have test preparation on the mind, and not be thinking about their son's appearance. After all, it's all about what's in the lad's head and not what's on it that matters. Unless, that is, the boy is sitting his Junior Cert at Tullamore Community College in County Offaly. To that school's principal, it's the look that counts.

American boys sport buzz cuts, especially those who indulge in athletics in the heat of summer. In Ireland, that look is not acceptable, but then, they don't have to deal with ninety degrees and ninety percent humidity. I presume that Irish youths are not wearing baseball caps during every waking hour, thus they have no fear of hat hair and can be more stylish. Besides, there's a 'skinhead' thing there that we don't see here. A gaggle of buzz-cut American boys is accepted as normal, but across the pond they would see a congregation of hooligans and skinheads bent on destruction.

Three boys from the Tullamore school turned up right on time to sit their Junior Leaving, and just like that, they were booted, and all because of short hair. School rules, you see, must dictate something more coiffed, perhaps layered or gelled and spiky, but no buzz cuts here, thank you very much. It's not that this was the first time that the lads were warned about the short locks, either, but isn't it a free country? Can't a boy choose his own style?

Not at Tullamore Community College they can't. And because they did not listen to the principal when he told them before, the three students were sent away and had to find another school to sit their exams. One poor wee lad was so upset that he's decided to wait until next year.

So there they were, flaunting the rules, and Mr. McEvoy, the harried principal, had had enough. Out they went, and the uproar is being heard up and down the island. Yes, the boys had been warned before and yes, they had been suspended before, and all over the length of their hair. But, you see, they like short hair, and their mothers support their sartorial choices. The ongoing argument is simply that the principal picked the wrong time to make his point, during the high stress days of the exams.

Obviously, Tullamore Community College is not run by the Jesuits. They would have solved the problem by forcing the boys to don wigs if they wished to enter the building. Where's the respect for authority gone?