The crime of wearing a hat

Finally, it seems that I have a relationship with 9th graders. Just in time, too, because this is their last chance. Will they stay with it or drop out and do who knows what? I've patiently persevered through the passive resistance of foul language and bad behavior to a point where they are writing essays and demanding my attention for learning.

"Hey Teacher, I need you over here NOW! How do you spell....? What do I write next?

"What you helpin' him for when I need you here, Miss? What dis word mean?

"Read me this! It don't make no sense to me!"

" So, 'cordin to this here, it say dat John Brown was a white man an' he set off a slave rebellion? How you tell me dat?"

"Dis Howard Zinn? He black or white? He from Yale? Dat better dan Harvard? W.E. B. DuBois from there."


I need another pencil - one wit an eraser! Can't you make them shut up next door? I need quiet to write dis!"

Were these the same kids who would not even acknowledge my presence a few months ago? The kids who knew only rappers and sports stars?

Only one thing is wrong. Often they are wearing their HATS! This is against the most basic and essential of school rules.
The reasoning is this:
1. Hats denote gang membership.
2.The rules of society in the "business world" require that men remove their hats.
These two things sound reasonable. Right?

But, keep in mind that many of these children look better with their hats and for several of them, the hat is the more attractive part. Add in bad hair days, very bad haircuts, and the issue of dandruff, and you have a quagmire of emotional issues.

Of course, I wish to uphold school rules. Also I am old fashioned and I prefer proper manners. A gentleman removes his hat inside a building. So I remind my students of both of these things as they enter my classroom with their hats. At this point, some comply. I remind them again and make a note to report the rule breakers as I go on to the lesson of the day.

Yesterday I got the news. Three ninth graders have been suspended for five days. At that time there will be a hearing and they may be placed elsewhere.Or nowhere, as they are old enough for expulsion. I may not see them again. Why, I asked? The answer was that their non-compliance with authority was excessive and unacceptable. They refused to remove their hats when asked repeatedly by school auxiliary staff.

Thoughts buzzed through my head:

Nobody removed these kids for noncompliance when they were throwing textbooks at each other in my classroom in September, or when they broke the computer, or when they picked the lock on the school's supply cabinet, or when they pulled the fire alarm, but they were not wearing hats at that time.

Seventh graders are far more non-compliant, yet they are not removed because the law is on their side and they would have to be placed, at a much higher price to the school district.

Last summer I was in a restaurant with the assistant superintendent and her husband after an outing. The husband was wearing a baseball cap rather than his usual toupee. He did not remove his hat. Nobody said a word.

What is really going on here?