VivirLatino

5- year old Adriel Arocha shouldn’t be at the center of a firestorm right now. He should be in school learning alongside his classmates in his hometown on the outskirts of Houston, Texas. But a controversy around his physical appearance is holding him back:

Michelle Betenbaugh says her 5-year-old son, Adriel Arocha, wears his hair long because of religious beliefs tied to his Native American heritage.

But the leaders of the Needville school district have strict rules about long hair on boys and don’t see any reason to make an exception in his case.

The dispute illustrates a problem American schools have faced for decades: how to balance individual student rights against rules designed to maintain order and discipline in the classroom.

The case also shows that some rural Texas school districts often have stricter grooming codes that reflect the traditional or old-fashioned values of small-town America when compared to those in big-city school districts such as Houston’s.

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