What is it about schools and hair?
When I was a boy, I had to have it cut, a practice which seems to be alive and well in the US. My own sons had friends who were instructed to grow their various crewcut grades longer (again, a habit with form in the States).
Now a ponytail has led to a stand-off in Bolton between the family of an 11-year-old and Westhoughton High where he's just started this term. Connor Wallwork has had the tail since he was a toddler, according to his father Geoff, who is refusing the school's request that it be trimmed off.
That's breaching Connor's human rights, he says - at the heavier end of a string of arguments which also include the fact that no-one has complained, so far as the boy and his family know, and none of the 1100 other pupils have been distracted from lessons.
The school's headteacher Phil Hart says:
The school has a clear uniform code which covers uniform and hairstyles. This is published to all our parents and carers and is part of the student planner. We ask for the support of all parents and carers in supporting our high standards and ensuring the uniform code is followed by every student.
Nope, says Wallwork senior, and so Connor and his three inch ponytail have been missing school.
They're all going to meet up to try to sort it out now. Any advice, anyone? A propos of not very much, one of the north's greatest photographers, Kippa Matthews, has a ponytail. Our own superstar Chris Thomond is very neatly trimmed.
