For the most part, the start of a new school year comes with the expectation of more reading, writing and arithmetic.
For one local student, it was DCHS’s dress code policy that presented an unexpected consequence as she was sent home after three days of class for the color of her hair.
Some parents are taking umbrage with the DeKalb County High School’s dress code policy, or more precisely in the way it is being enforced.
‘My eldest daughter, Nicole, was kicked out of school because of her hair color.  She has had the same rich red color for the last few years of high school without an issue,” said Sara Fultz “The point that I want to make is that my daughter is an A-B student, in honors classes, taking college courses in her junior year of high school.  She doesn’t goof off and she keeps to herself.  She is not a distraction.  Her hair is not a distraction to her studies or to other students. She has had this color for several years, 100 percent the same color, with no issue.”
DeKalb County High School has a new principal this year, and the school has commented to media they are simply enforcing existing rules which have been in place all along. While it’s not clear how and why Fultz’s hair was distracting, Sara Fultz says it has been more of a distraction since the school disciplined her.
“Now everyone asks my daughter if she dyed her hair,” Fultz said. “They didn’t even think of it before.”
The school’s dress code calls for No extreme, unusual, or unnatural hair coloring or tints. Hairstyles are to be moderate with no startling and/or extreme styles.
“Students have taken to calling it being ‘dress coded’ as there was a group of no less than nine teens in the office to be sent home or having to call their parents for a change of clothes this morning at DCHS,” Fultz reports.”
Fultz has returned to school after changing her hair color from the preferred red to brunette.