Phew, I was worried that rights were being violated for a moment!
I wet shave with foam/gel/waterbased face-razor medium because electric shavers give you a pale imitation of what a shave should actually be, and they require cleaning and all sorts of mundane maintenance. My facial hair is pretty thick and akin to wire wool, so if I use any more than one blade it ends up in blades getting stuck, hair getting ripped out, and cuts everywhere. God knows how bad it would be if I didn't use foam (@BoB). I tried shaving in the shower once but ended up coming out with huge areas I'd missed, so I don't understand why you would do that.
there was a picture here
I thought with in loco parentis schools could trample all over your rights as they damn well pleased
No. Your school was weird and the parents surprisingly non-whiney. Parents rule the schools.
Just to chime in, in South Carolina I've never heard of anything like that coming up. We had kids with facial hair at my school, and I ran track/cross country/soccer with long hair. Nothing was ever mentioned. I also don't think it's very common. Maybe your VP was old school, and it was just accepted because the parents didn't mind?
I could see it being more likely at something like a private school.