[News] Girl Suspended from School over haircut.

[Chevalier laughingnome]

Seriously, What the Fuck?

A 15 girl can't go to school because she got her head shaved. No words in her hair or anything like that, just a straight, honest crew cut and she's sent home? I feel dirty. Need shower.

(didn't know how to embed this particular video)

[Maid Superman]

Private Catholic school?  I don't know how schools work over there, but it wouldn't surprise if it happened here.  Paying more to get less is pretty much the whole idea of going to a private Catholic school, isn't it?

[Professor Pamasaurus]

Those douchebags!!! She shaved her head to raise awareness about cancer, because her dad has leukemia and will only live a few more months. And the school suspends her for that?! 

Yet another thing wrong with Catholicism.

[Captain Kibble]

Not sure if it a Catholic thing to be honest. In my experience the people who run schools are amongst the biggest douchebags on Earth. No matter if they are religious or secular.

[Maid Superman]

Well, there's no way that would fly in a public school at all.

[lanky]

I found it rather silly myself. Her father is dying, there is a charity event out here, Worlds Greatest Shave that does exactly what this girl has done.

If I was her friend at this school I would also be shaving my head in support. Plus it is a cool and legit way to get out of school. I can just see it now, 50 girls with shaved heads not having to go to school but instead getting the chance to stay home with her dying father.

[Maid Superman]

It's not silly.  Rich people pay money for less rights all the time.  America is plastered with expensive housing developments with associations that tell them what color their house can be, how they can decorate for holidays, and how many people can be in their yard.  Rich people love to join social clubs with highly discriminatory policies on what kinds of friends they can invite.  Paying extra money to go to a school that tells them how their children can wear their hair is hardly the strangest thing they do.

[comrade spider]

Fun fact:  Catholic "private" schools receive 73% as much funding from the NSW government as public schools do.  (Source: Catholic Education Office Sydney website)

I'm surprised though - I thought Catholic schools were more mellow about this stuff than protestant ones.

I don't really care if it's at Kincoppal or Macquarie Fields High or if the real reason she shaved it off was to join a satanic Nazi cult, I don't think people entrusted with the job of providing a vital service to the community should have the right to disrupt a kid's education for frivolous reasons, and I don't think it's something to take lightly just because "rich people do this sort of stuff all the time." Yes, I'm looking at you, Superman.

[Maid Superman]

Fun fact:  Catholic "private" schools receive 73% as much funding from the NSW government as public schools do.

Aaargggh!!!  Fuck.  They're trying to pull that shit here too.  Fuck!  How are you not rioting on the streets?

I don't think it's something to take lightly just because "rich people do this sort of stuff all the time." Yes, I'm looking at you, Superman.

What?  If some guy pays $20 to have his face smashed in with a hammer, I'm supposed to feel bad for him?  Some rich person leases a car and has to pay for over priced oil changes and limit his mileage, and I supposed to fight for his "rights"?

These people went out of their way to send their child to a school that doesn't have to follow the normal rules of society.  The result is hardly unexpected.

[Captain Kibble]

Their is only one solution to Catholicism. Just swap the Nov 5th effigies for the real thing. It's not very PC though.

[comrade spider]

I don't think it's something to take lightly just because "rich people do this sort of stuff all the time." Yes, I'm looking at you, Superman.

What?  If some guy pays $20 to have his face smashed in with a hammer, I'm supposed to feel bad for him?  Some rich person leases a car and has to pay for over priced oil changes and limit his mileage, and I supposed to fight for his "rights"?

These people went out of their way to send their child to a school that doesn't have to follow the normal rules of society.  The result is hardly unexpected.

As someone who was made, very unhappily, to go to these sorts of bullshit private schools, I have to say I kind of resent your attitude.  But hey, if my rich parents paid $20 to have my face smashed in with a hammer, why should you give a shit?

[lanky]

Aaargggh!!!  Fuck.  They're trying to pull that shit here too.  Fuck!  How are you not rioting on the streets?

Nobody really noticed it was happening until it was too late and then everyone started complaining. But by that point the church had got their hands on the cash and were not going to let go of it.

[comrade spider]

Aaargggh!!!  Fuck.  They're trying to pull that shit here too.  Fuck!  How are you not rioting on the streets?

Nobody really noticed it was happening until it was too late and then everyone started complaining. But by that point the church had got their hands on the cash and were not going to let go of it.

I thought it'd been like that for ages.  I can't even find when it started to be that way.  Probably in some Liberal government, but then again Chairman Rudd is throwing shitloads of cash towards private schools like he thinks he's Howard or something. 

The up-shot is that they can't generate a profit.  That's not how it is everywhere.  Education for profit is a terrible idea to me.

[Maid Superman]

I don't think it's something to take lightly just because "rich people do this sort of stuff all the time." Yes, I'm looking at you, Superman.

What?  If some guy pays $20 to have his face smashed in with a hammer, I'm supposed to feel bad for him?  Some rich person leases a car and has to pay for over priced oil changes and limit his mileage, and I supposed to fight for his "rights"?

These people went out of their way to send their child to a school that doesn't have to follow the normal rules of society.  The result is hardly unexpected.

As someone who was made, very unhappily, to go to these sorts of bullshit private schools, I have to say I kind of resent your attitude.  But hey, if my rich parents paid $20 to have my face smashed in with a hammer, why should you give a shit?

Touche.

[Chevalier laughingnome]

Nobody really noticed it was happening until it was too late and then everyone started complaining. But by that point the church had got their hands on the cash and were not going to let go of it.

"Nobody really noticed" is balls. Governments have been funding all schools in Australia since State Parliaments were founded. The Government funds the entirity of public schools budget and most of the Private ones. The Private ones make up the remainder with huge fees to the students. It's been that way for 150 years.

[Maid Superman]

I don't think it's something to take lightly just because "rich people do this sort of stuff all the time." Yes, I'm looking at you, Superman.

What?  If some guy pays $20 to have his face smashed in with a hammer, I'm supposed to feel bad for him?  Some rich person leases a car and has to pay for over priced oil changes and limit his mileage, and I supposed to fight for his "rights"?

These people went out of their way to send their child to a school that doesn't have to follow the normal rules of society.  The result is hardly unexpected.

As someone who was made, very unhappily, to go to these sorts of bullshit private schools, I have to say I kind of resent your attitude.  But hey, if my rich parents paid $20 to have my face smashed in with a hammer, why should you give a shit?

Another thought.  This kind of goes into the territory of a different conversation we've had about whether the government should have any say over how parents raise their children.

[comrade spider]

Nobody really noticed it was happening until it was too late and then everyone started complaining. But by that point the church had got their hands on the cash and were not going to let go of it.

"Nobody really noticed" is balls. Governments have been funding all schools in Australia since State Parliaments were founded. The Government funds the entirity of public schools budget and most of the Private ones. The Private ones make up the remainder with huge fees to the students. It's been that way for 150 years.

See, there's the info I couldn't find.  No wonder I couldn't remember which government brought that in.  Fuck, it started before the Liberal party even existed.  Who would have thought?

I don't think it's something to take lightly just because "rich people do this sort of stuff all the time." Yes, I'm looking at you, Superman.

What?  If some guy pays $20 to have his face smashed in with a hammer, I'm supposed to feel bad for him?  Some rich person leases a car and has to pay for over priced oil changes and limit his mileage, and I supposed to fight for his "rights"?

These people went out of their way to send their child to a school that doesn't have to follow the normal rules of society.  The result is hardly unexpected.

As someone who was made, very unhappily, to go to these sorts of bullshit private schools, I have to say I kind of resent your attitude.  But hey, if my rich parents paid $20 to have my face smashed in with a hammer, why should you give a shit?

Another thought.  This kind of goes into the territory of a different conversation we've had about whether the government should have any say over how parents raise their children.

I guess the inherent problems are 1) treating families as isolated private units rather than part of a community and 2) seeing children as chattle belonging to adults rather than as dependent individuals in the care of adults.   Oh, and 3) the perception - which could well be right - that the government is no longer (or never has been) an accurate representation of the community.

However, remember this is about what a school did, not what her parents did.  I wouldn't be surprised if her parents remove her from that school now.  And it doesn't take much to enrol at a Catholic school.  Sure, there are some huge prestigious Catholic schools out there, but most are just local church schools.  My aunts & uncles simply sent my cousins to the local parish school just like I have Alex enrolled at the school we're in the area for here.

There are hospitals in NSW that were formally public hospitals but then were handed over to the Catholic church to administer, still with some public funding.  The church shut down certain services in these hospitals like vasectomies and IVF clinics. Some do not refer rape victims to rape counselling services, because those services will offer them emergency contraception and referral for abortions. Not only do they receive public money, but they sometimes service regional areas where people don't get much choice - much like kids don't get much choice of what school they go to.    It's not a simple matter of consumer choice.  If they are entrusted to provide a community service, then the community's interests should come first. 

The school simply shouldn't have the legal authority to suspend a student beyond reasons of violence, significant disruption to other pupils or breaking the law at school (eg: drugs).  Sure, if she were sent to a hospital that wouldn't provide her with contraception or rape counselling, it'd be a much more acutely serious matter, but it's the same principle - they don't have the right and it's not their business to decide that.

[Maid Superman]

You're obviously dealing with a very different paradigm than I'm used to.  Thank you, Australia, for showing me now and then that there are people doing, at least some things, far worse than we are.

[Professor Pamasaurus]

You're obviously dealing with a very different paradigm than I'm used to. 

The very reason I've not been able to say much about this topic.

Thank you, Australia, for showing me now and then that there are people doing, at least some things, far worse than we are.

Yeah, that shit wouldn't fly here. But it's not like a multitude of people wouldn't want it to.