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It seems everyone has an opinion on the Nazarene High School hair cut situation. Well, among them is UNIBAM Executive Director Caleb Orozco. His organization sent out a release today saying that the schools “act of institutional intimidation has declared war on young people and is designed to promote systemic control, inequity and inequality”. He says it goes against the student’s constitutional rights and strips them of their freedom of expression. Here is how he put it.

Caleb Orozco - Executive Director, UNIBAM
"At the heart of the matter, the school understanding that when they create rules, the create rules that do not dehumanize the dignity of a young person and that they recognize that young people need some level of autonomy in the way they express themselves. For many people, they will have the old colonial view that when rules are created in schools it must be followed but we say from a very strong civil rights perspective that students do not give up their dignity or their constitutional rights when they attend school and for school to expect they give up their dignity or constitutional rights over something as superficial as a haircut is to ignore the point that the last decision of resort is not the school, it's the Supreme Court. As citizens we have a responsibility to challenge any rule which violates the constitution under which we live."

Courtney Weatherburne
"So you're tackling this issue from a law perspective?"

Caleb Orozco
"From a law perspective yes, from a constitutional perspective. The sad thing is, this particular decision even from a cultural perspective by Mr. Andrew Hemmons does not reflect our cultural practices which goes back to the 1980s where afro was in style. How can you then come and try and dictate and total control your young people about their expression when hair, specifically has been a personal decision of the person and not the school."

Courtney Weatherburne
"How do you now respond to the argument that, listen school rules are school rules. A rule is a rule and you have to follow it. You decide to be a part of the student body, you want to come to this school, you have to follow the rules."

Caleb Orozco
"School rules are designed to not create disruptions, not to cause harm but when school rules seek to dehumanize a person based on their expression, it ignores the fundamental point as to why the school operates. The school operates to teach morale values to educate their students about subject matter, to make them productive citizens. It is not there to completely control the expression of an individual from a very subjective point of view."

Of course, Nazarene is a Christian managed school and there are religious overtones to this argument.  We sought comment from Pastor Scott Stirm who said, quote, “Orozco should sue Social Security or the banks for infringing upon people’s “freedom of expression” by requiring a UNIFORM!!!”