Story Archive

Useless Uniformity

Kamryn Renfro, 11, wanted to show her support for a friend who has been suffering from neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer, since she was 7. When Delaney Clements had a relapse, Renfro asked her parents to shave her head to match Clements’ head, after all her hair fell out from chemotherapy. Caprock Academy, a public charter school in Grand Junction, Colo., took quick action: it declared Renfro’s bald head contrary to the school’s dress code, and told her she could not attend school until it grew out. Caprock Board of Directors Chairwoman and President Catherine M. Norton Breman explained the policy “was created to promote safety, uniformity, and a non-distracting environment for the school’s students,” and exceptions were granted only “under exigent and extraordinary circumstances.” After Renfro’s mother went public with the story on her Facebook page, school officials faced a massive uproar in the community over indefinitely suspending a student for helping a friend. The Board held an emergency meeting and voted 3–1 in “executive session” to grant the girl an exception. Kamryn’s mother, Jamie, is now turning her attention to changing the school’s policy. (RC/Grand Journal Sentinel, KJCT Grand Junction) ...You mean the policy that allowed the public-entity Board not to disclose which member voted against the exception?
Original Publication Date: 13 April 2014
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.

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