Twelve-year-old Zachary Sharples, his father and his 4-year-old brother have had Rays Fever all season long. So with the team entering the ALCS against Boston on Friday, they all started the week by heading down to the barbershop to get Mohawks, the style preferred by many of the Rays players, fans and even manager, Joe Maddon.
Unfortunately, Sharples' school, Lincoln Middle in Palmetto, doesn't quite share the same level of passion for the Rays. Even though the mayor of Clearwater has vowed he'll get a "Rayhawk" if the team makes the World Series, the Lincoln administrators immediately gave Sharples an in-school suspension for a dress code violation.
From the Tampa Tribune:
Mohawks are stylish in the Bay area now because several Rays players have them and word is the style has brought them luck at the end of the season. A barber in Town 'N Country has offered to give free mohawk haircuts until the Rays lose or win out.
The style didn't fly at Lincoln Middle School, Zachary said, even though the night before he washed out the blue dye. He knew the blue would cause problems, but he didn't think the style itself violated anything. He said he has never been in trouble before, but he has resolved to keep the style.
"I'm not shaving it off until they win the World Series," he said.
No word if the administrators would have preferred Sharples completely shaving his head so he looked like a neo-Nazi, but you have to admire a kid who's willing to stand up for what he believes in. He didn't go to school either Tuesday or Wednesday and his family is moving to St. Petersburg later this week, so he likely won't have to deal with schools that won't allow their students to experience a little playoff fun.
The good news is that Zachary and his family will be at the Rays playoff games on both Friday and Saturday, where his haircut will not only be accepted, but celebrated. Long live the Rayhawk, indeed.
that's quite an interesting story.At my high school you will see people with Mohawks and colored hair all the time,so I have never heard of rules like that,and I don't quite understand why its an issue.Do they think that Mohawks are distracting?
Well schools have a right to their dress code. Although I agree that with that particular issue they may have gone a little overboard. I do feel bad for the kid. I mean the Rays are going to lose. Big time haha
he shouldn't be suspended for it. Being suspended is when you do somthing that is so bad, that you can't come into school for a day or more. Having a condition like his is just a horrible accident, and he shouldn't be punished for something he can't controll. If he baged his teacher and got it, ok mabey he should be suspended, but seeing that isn't the case, people should just leave him alone untill he recovers.
Although if it did violate the dress code, the kid should not have got it in the first place. But if they school just said it violated the "dress code" because they were being @ss holes, then he should have been left alone.
Yeah, I hate how all the teachers allways have to be so itchy about things. I don't know why they always have to act like they have a stick up their @ss.
He got suspended for a haircut? At our school we're not aloud long hair(boys) or a number 1 haircut or mohawks or 'extreme' hairstyles or else we'll be put in isolation.
I don't see the problem with it. Just sounds like a school trying to crush his first amendment rights. Give them an inch, they take a mile. It's just hair, worry more about how your teachers teach then how your students look.
