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Minneapolis South High has prohibited students and staff from wearing headgear not mandated by religions (for example, Muslim females are allowed to keep their hair covered) for as long as anyone can remember. No hats, no bandanas, no skin caps, nothing. If you are found wearing any non-religious headgear, you are either compelled to remove it from your head and put it away, or if the employee enforcing the policy is having a bad day, they can arbitrarily seize the headgear and retain it as long as they please, unless you get a parent or guardian to come into the school and demand that they return your property. Occasionally, one of the assistant principals will be in the mood to be sucked up to, and then they will make an announcement that they'll be returning property that they seized during a certain time period, as if students are supposed to think of the staffer as a benevolent "Lady Bountiful" when really all she is doing is returning ill-gotten gains she never should have put her grubby hands on in the first place.

Why Do They Do This?

The administration/school district claims that this policy is in place to "maintain order," and to "reduce the presence of gang symbols." Of course, the vast majority of people who wear hats have never been in a gang, but apparently this is irrelevant--as is the fact that hats are not widely used as gang symbols anymore. When confronted with these facts about a year ago, one administrator brought out a new claim--that people should keep their hats off in school as a form of "respect". Whether she meant respect for people around them who might be offended at them wearing a hat, or respect for pointless policies is unclear. No member of Vinny's Education Coalition would be personally offended by someone wearing a hat. In fact, the consensus among us is that we don't really care if someone is wearing a hat or not. In fact, the only place in which there is a legitimate reason for the school to ban hats is in gym class, or the voluntary student athletics programs, where they could get in the way.

What Should Be Done About This Injustice?

Schools all around the district (as well as the district HQ and the school board) need to be pressured to bring common sense back to the district, and eliminate stupid policies like this one. Staff waste time every day enforcing this unfair policy, so there is substantial money to be saved. Why not focus on student achievement and teaching, rather than ridiculous policies that do nothing more than stoke the egos of pathetic administrators.--Dr. Vinny, South High Sucks.com Founder & Publisher

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