Safety is a big issue for Hobbs Municipal Schools (HMS), and the long-standing district policy of requiring male HMS students to be clean shaven is creating quite a controversy with parents and stakeholders as schools open for the 2022-23 school year.
According to the HMS Facebook page, the clean shaven policy was instituted by the Hobbs school board to enable “security officers to identify non-students on campus quickly, and to ensure the safety of all. A male walking on campus with facial hair and no ID can quickly be identified as a non-student.”
Some folks question this argument. HMS parent Sulema Ronquillo asks on Facebook, “They want them clean shaven so they can be identified with their IDs?” Ronquillo suggests that to do this, ID photos should be current. “My daughter’s IDs have always been her school pics from a year, if not 2 years ago. Makes no sense. Y’all need to get your priorities straight that [being clean shaven] should be the least of your worries.” she says.
HMS parent Uganda Richardson admonishes the district. “They don’t have the current handbook out. How are we suppose[d] to know what the rules are as new parents. Complaining and speaking up are two different concepts.”
Leslie Parchman Pfalzgraf sees it differently. She says, “Bottom line. People don’t like rules and everyone thinks they all deserve the same rights but refuse to respect the rules and laws that are in place!! You earn the right to have rights!! When students grow up and become a teacher then they can have facial hair. But until then work on respecting rules.”
Clean Shaven Policy 30 Years Old
The district’s clean shaven policy has been in existence for approximately 30 years. It states that male students in Hobbs middle and high schools must be clean shaven. A KRQE News 13 report quotes HMS Superintendent Gene Strickland as saying, “‘[The policy] is in place to prepare students for life after high school, but also for safety reasons. They say it’s easier for security to identify a non-student with facial hair quicker.’”
For some like former HMS student and now mother Chey Ann Rusk district policy is inappropriate. She is quoted by KRQE as saying, “’This is 2022, for someone to be making rules over how someone should look based off of someone else’s guidelines, is not okay.'”
Others are less concerned. Former student Ubaldo Garcia states, “Never had a problem with it.” Waylon Lee sees the controversy as, “Parents freaking out over something that has 0 impact on them.”
The clean shaven policy is for students only and does not apply to staff. The enforcement piece of the policy happens by pulling offending male students out of the classroom and requiring them to shave before returning to the classroom.
Although the policy has been around for many years, the district says that it is always open to reviewing and updating policies to ensure safety and a better learning environment.
Photo by Brett Jordan // Unsplash
