The Controversy of Dread Locks

A young, black, male student in Virginia has had dreads since he was in third grade. He goes to a private school and his school is now telling him he has to cut off his dreads if he still wants to attend the school. This is obviously outrageous. Just because he looks a certain way because of his hair doesn't mean that the school can tell him to look a different way. What if he was white and he had long hair? What would the school do in that situation? I want to know if the school is making him cut off his dreads because of racial issues. Either way, it is rude for the school to make a young student change the way he looks and change what he is comfortable with.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/student-told-cut-dreadlocks-wanted-140023775.html