EL PASO -- Two students who say school officials cut their hair because its length didn't comply with a new dress code are suing the Canutillo Independent School District.

The suit, filed Wednesday, contends that district officials during the second week of school sent male students with long hair to detention hall and forced them to remain there until they agreed to have their hair cut.

The suit was filed by junior high school students Eric Trevino and Ted Murga-troyd and the American Civil Liberties Union. It alleges they were discriminated against and deprived of due process.

"Canutillo has been taking off male students' . . . shearing off their hair like they were a bunch of sheep,' said lawyer Rod Ponton.

"They don't have the right to do that under the Texas Constitution. The Texas Constitution says you're supposed to treat people equally regardless of sex. You can't go around cutting off the hair from the male students unless they're going to go do it to the girls in class.

"I've never seen any regulation or any study that said people learn better if they had short hair rather than long hair.'

The suit seeks a temporary restraining order and then a permanent injunction to halt enforcement of the policy.

Canutillo schools Superintendent Wilson Knapp said he had not been informed of the ACLU lawsuit. Mr. Knapp said the district would have no comment on the suit or the hair-cutting policy until next week, after an investigation is complete.

Hanna Murgatroyd, mother of one of the youths, said her son had a ponytail that fell between his shoulder blades.

Mrs. Murgatroyd, a beautician, said a vice principal called her Sept. 11 and asked her to pick up her son because his hair was too long. She said that when she went to get the youth, his ponytail had been cut off.

She said her son was forced to sign a form that gave teachers permission to cut the students' hair.

"It's stupid,' Ted Murga-troyd said Wednesday about the school's dress code. "We should be able to wear what we want. We're going to school once. We shouldn't have to go through it with misery. If they keep enforcing it, they're going to see a lot of dropouts.'

He said his hair, which now falls slightly above the collar, is still uneven.

Several parents complained about the hair-cutting at a Sept. 12 meeting the school board called to consider the dress code. The board agreed to drop the hair-length regulation from the code.

But the ACLU says it is pursuing the suit despite the code change to prevent the district from adopting such a policy again.

"Other school districts may have adopted the same kind of illegal actions,' said Louis Akin, chairman of the El Paso ACLU chapter. "We want to make sure it's not reinstated in the future. . . . That will be a message to other school districts.'

The suit is the second hair-length issue the Canutillo district has faced. Last year school officials suspended a student, who is the high school's valedictorian this year, because his hair was too long.

A Houston man whose two sons have long hair has filed a similar discrimination suit against the Spring Independent School District. His sons were suspended, but their hair was not cut.