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Andrew Jones, a star athlete and straight A student ended his four years at Amite High School in Louisiana with a 4.0 GPA making him valedictorian. However, instead of Jones participating in the graduation ceremony, Jones was told because of his facial hair he wasn’t allowed to attend.
“Eventually they took my gown,” he recalled, “They told me they had to take my gown from me.”
The school district says it has a policy of no facial hair on male students. The superintendent said Jones and his family were reminded of the rule three times, including graduation night, along with 13 other graduates. They were told if they didn’t go in the bathroom to shave, they couldn’t participate with the class. Jones was the only one who refused, because he said that rule was never enforced before.
Eyewitness News uncovered two pictures of Jones from this school year, one at the school, one at the school board office, including the superintendent. Both show Jones with a beard from ear to ear.
“It don’t make sense, every day of school I went with it, even more, I did shave,” said Jones, “I had like sides and everything, but I shaved that for graduation.”
“What was the real issue that he couldn’t walk with his class?” asked Sabrina Davis, Jones’ aunt. “He was top of his class, you know, that moment was the most important moment of his life.”
The superintendent said that the principal at Amite High was unavailable to answer as to why the student was allowed to have a beard throughout the school year, but not on graduation. He did also say that the situation has led him to revisit with all the high school administrators about the district’s policy being enforced every day, starting on day one of every school year.
Jones is sharing his story to protect other families from similar disappointments. Now, he’s moving on.
“For a young man that talented, and very academic, to hold a 4.0 and still manage to be a father to his child, the sky’s the limit to me,” said Davis.
Jones is headed to SLU with an academic scholarship, an athletic scholarship and a spot on the football team. He’s hoping to either play professional sports or become a sports team trainer.
Agencies/Canadajournal
A cop pulled me over the other day and gave me a ticket for speeding. I was furious. I yelled at him and said, why the hell didn’t you give me a ticket for all the other times I was speeding.
This is asinine. If there’s a rule that says he should shave, and he was given opportunity to shave, and all the other kids complied, then this kid doesn’t deserve special treatment, even if he’s “smart”. Which apparently, he isn’t.
he is just being targeted because he’s a minority @joe mamma, they should have enforced those exact rules at the BEGINNING of the school year also & not just wait until Graduation if they wanted to be so rigid with regard to the requirements! Oh he’s smart, as can be attested by his academic career, stop being an indifferent bigot with your typical whilte privilege & cavalier attitude!
I work at a place where I need to be clean shaved. Everyone else is clean shaven. Why would they make an exception for me. Do I shave when the bosses say I have too much stubble? Sure, but when the are not going to be working I don’t shave. For graduation when you know the bosses are going to be there (unlike in your classroom) why would you choose to shave everything but the goatee when you have been told to shave? And it isn’t a racist cavalier attitude because all the other students may have been black as well. This has nothing to do with race. It has to do with following the dress code of your job/school, etc.