5-year-old Kindergartner Ethan Clos Suspended From School For Sporting Mohawk Haircut Inspired By Gwen Stefani's Son

A five-year-old has been suspended from his elementary school after he showed up sporting a spiked mohawk haircut.

Ethan Clos was sent home last Wednesday by staff at Reid Elementary School in Springfield, Ohio for violating the district's dress code.  His fellow  kindergarten classmates thought his haircut was really cool, touching the spikes and bare head around it.

But school administrators did not agree with the impressed 5-year-olds. They deemed the edgy cut too disruptive, and ordered Clos to go home until he adopted a "tamer" style.

Popularized by Gwen Stefani's son Kingston, the hairstyle was given the o.k. by Ethan's mom, Keshia Castle, after her son begged and pleaded with her. She finally let him get it over spring break. 

The dress code at Reid Elementary does clearly state: "Hair shall be worn above the eyebrows and must be kept clean, neat and trimmed" and specifies that boys may not wear their hair longer than the bottom of their shirt collars. It also says: "Hair styling or coloring arrangements which are disruptive or distracting are not permissible." 

"Our policy clearly states that any dress or grooming which is disruptive or distracting to the educational process is not acceptable," Morris verified to WHIO-TV. "In this particular case, the student's hairstyle did provide disruption to the classroom."

Nobody is denying that the haircut is a distraction, but family members of the child believe that the punishment is a bit extreme.

Ethan's grandmother, Joyce Wells, thinks the suspension was too harsh a penalty to pay for a hairstyle. A mohawk, she said, isn't really that different from other styles where the hair is cut close to the scalp, especially if the mohawk itself is short.

"I could understand if it was colored, and if it stood up off longer of his head," his grandmother said. "But I don't see nothing wrong with this."

This is not the District's first accusation of hypocrisy. In 2011, Tim Seelig, a volunteer Shawnee High School football coach, was widely praised for adopting a blond Mohawk to motivate his team, but school administers shut down his spirited hairstyle.  Football players and civilians alike could understand what the big deal was.

Thankfully His mother, Keshia Castle, was informed her son could return to school once the mohawk had been shaved off.

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