One of the English teachers approached me during a quiet moment in the teachers' lounge today. She asked if we had a dress code in the US. This little moment of international exchange had been prompted by a student flouting the school dress code. What had this juvenile offender done to rock the boat? Her hair was now a Little Less Black.

Dying one's hair is expressly forbidden for students at my school, as are crazy piercings, jewelry, makeup, untrimmed fingernails, nail polish, skirt hems too high, pants too low, or non-school issued shoes (with shoe trim color-coded by grade). However, this creative student had only bent the rules... she had not dyed her hair, it had not been bleached; it was simply lighter than the day before. And the day before that. And the day before that. A subtle enough change over time for her to deny that she had done anything unnatural at all (though the school apparently has pretty straightforward before and after pictures). Nevertheless, non-black tresses (and not mine) could be easily spotted amidst a sea of otherwise uniformly black hair.

Wanting to genuinely know the answer, I asked the teacher as innocently and politely as I could: "What's the worst that can happen if one girl has dark brown hair?"

And neither I nor my colleague really know what to say. We both understand that hair color is in this case a proxy for a more complicated and less tangible issue: personal autonomy vs. institutional authority. As a homeroom teacher in a Japanese high school, it is the teacher's duty to look after her students and make sure they are respectful during and after school. Unlike American schools, teachers as well as parents take their kids' behavior very seriously, and are responsible for their actions.

My colleague is so stressed out because her options seem to be:
1. confront the student's parent, basically calling her kid a liar, or
2. fail her duty as a homeroom teacher.

The parent has also gotten involved and threatened to take the matter to the school board. In a country that values group harmony, I don't envy my colleague's position. All I could do was tell her that I came from a country where, when I was 15, one of my best friends had a nose piercing, pink hair, and wore lingerie as outerwear to school. And she didn't turn out to be a sociopath. I hope that helps, sensei.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.