A dad on Reddit is seeking advice after being told to cover up his tattoos. His family is experiencing a culture shock after moving from a more progressive town to a small town in Texas. Even though he finds his tattooed look to be nothing special, a young teacher at his son’s school felt differently, and she wasn’t afraid to let him know.
Despite having no real authority, the teacher tried to demand that he change the way he dresses. So he took matters into his own hands to defend himself.
His family recently moved from Seattle to a small town in Texas.
The 38-year-old dad explained that he inherited his grandma’s house and relocated his family from progressive Seattle to less progressive Texas. He shared that he and his wife “f—ing hate living” in the town, but he’s attached to the house and now has a better cost of living.
“I have a lot of tattoos, long hair, just a general look that really isn’t common here but was totally normal in Seattle,” he shared. “I’ve gotten a lot of looks and some s— from people here, which I don’t really give a f— about, but suffice it to say my appearance doesn’t fit in.”
He wasn’t prepared for the interaction with his child’s small town teacher.
Dad explained that at first his wife was doing school and day care pickup for their child. But once his schedule changed, he was able to join her. He explained that the first time he met their son’s teacher, a woman in her late 20s, he “could just tell she was uncomfortable with my appearance from the jump.”
The couple spoke with the teacher about their son’s adjustment. “After talking about that for a bit his teacher asked me to cover up my tattoos (which would basically require covering up all of my skin below the neck) when I come pick him up and drop him off because it was off-putting and apparently tattoos are against the school dress code,” he revealed.
He flat-out refused to change his appearance.
“I’m not a student, so I said I wasn’t under their dress code,” he wrote in his post. According to the man, none of the tattoos you can see when he’s wearing clothes are “offensive.”
“She insisted, which irritated me and my wife, and basically we just told her that I wasn’t going to change how I dress and wasn’t going to stop picking up my kid, so she and anyone else who had a problem would have to just deal with it,” he shared.
The man and his wife believe they are right. But his mother believes that he should just adhere to the teacher’s request.
Many people were shocked by the teacher’s request.
“As an educator in Texas, this is ridiculous,” one commenter wrote. “That said, some schools have weird dress code rules for parents like no pajamas, no house shoes, no curlers. But requiring long pants and sleeves?!!! I would address this with her admin. And the superintendent if necessary. Because she is way out of line.”
“I live in SE Texas and have plenty of visible tattoos. Never had anyone say anything less than complimentary. Sounds like she’s a judgemental twit and thinks tattoos are bad,” another commenter wrote. “Parents are not subject to it and she needs to learn to deal with her discomfort and bias if she’s going to live in the real world. I’m sorry she’s teaching children!”
“Since when is it ok for schools to police people on tattoos? I get some clothing like if certain body parts are falling out, but tattoos???” someone else commented. “Pretty sure the no tattoo rule is for the students, not their parents.”
He did share an update.
In a new post, the dad shared that there are a variety of reasons for them to move to the small town, but the teacher incident was a reason to reconsider staying. However, he did go to the school to try to sort out the clothing thing.
“The meeting went about as well as it could have gone,” he shared. He claimed that the school’s principal avoided saying that the teacher was wrong. Instead, the principal tried to pass off the teacher’s actions as inexperience. “She did say that the teacher’s actions ‘weren’t right,’ so I guess that’s something,” he added.
In the end, the principal agreed that if they thought the teacher was treating their son unfairly or if the boy was unhappy, they’d move him to a different class.
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