Sadly, you can't even depend on the Supreme Court Justices to uphold the Constitution. I can understand if a private school restricts free speech. The same with this discussion board. Because it is private, you get to choose whether or not you go there and somebody generally owns it or at least a group of people with similar interests who decide what goes on and what doesn't. Public institutions are different because they are run by the government and paid for by tax dollars. This is what I see as the problem. Technically, parents can homeschool children but again their tax dollars would be going to an institution their child could not use.
Anybody who works for a public school including paid members of the board or higher administrators are government employees who are required to uphold the Constitution. A school just like any state building or library can naturally set rules so that the environment works reasonably well for everyone (all taxpayers). For instance, you can't scream and yell in a library but at the same time the librarians cannot tell you which books you can and cannot read. A courthouse may prohibit weapons but at the same time provides security to ensure safety and order of all in the building. So I would certainly agree that schools can have certain requirements such as "shirts and shoes required" or no smoking on campus or no loud outbursts in a classroom. Telling people how long their hair is to be is clearly taking it beyond the scope of what is necessary for an educational institution to be efficiently operated. Again, this isn't about what certain parents want or what certain officials want. Tax dollars pay for these institutions and they are government run so if something isn't clearly jeapordizing the operation of the institution, it should not be part of the policy.
As to dress codes being applied equally across the board, I doubt this is the case with the current school in question. Are girls allowed to keep their hair short? I bet they are. If a boy can't have long hair then a girl shouldn't be allowed short hair. Besides, they are already dividing on the basis of gender. Suppose they do it on religion and race next. Say a Sikh child can't wear a turban or a black kid can't have an African-style cut. Clearly none of this has anything to do with efficiently running an educational institution paid for by taxpayers and supposedly designed to serve we the people.
Since public schools seem more interested in homogonizing the masses than simply teaching the three Rs, we ought to eliminate them altogether. Instead, you would have only private schools which would now have to compete for everyone's business. Then if certain parents or certain children find one school a better fit than another, that is their choice as a consumer. Poorer families would be able to still attend school based on charitable donations, scholarships, and perhaps a tax-paid voucher program allowing them to go anywhere. Ultimately when you have choice and competition, the people win. When you have government control it means you have no choice and it doesn't take long to realize that whatever is available is incredibly inefficient, corrupt, and not in the interest of the people. Enough said.
