A 7-year-old biracial girl from Michigan had her hair cut twice in school: once by a fellow student and another time by a teacher.
After coming home with her hair chopped off on one side on March 24,, Jurnee told her dad, Jimmy Hoffmeyer, that a classmate had cut it on the school bus, The Associated Press reports. Hoffmeyer took his daughter to a salon to get it fixed that same day; however, two days later, she came back from school with even shorter hair after a library teacher decided to cut it.
Jurnee was “crying,” Hoffmeyer said of his daughter getting her hair cut again at school. “She was afraid of getting in trouble for getting her hair cut.”
“I asked what happened and said ‘I thought I told you no child should ever cut your hair,’” he explained. “She said, ‘But dad, it was the teacher.’ The teacher cut her hair to even it out.”
The public school district’s explanation wasn’t particularly helpful, with them reportedly saying that the classmate who cut Jurnee’s hair stole the scissors from a teacher and that they were going to “talk to the parents” about the matter.
As far as the library teacher—the school was far less accommodating, with the principal saying he could only reprimand the teacher by putting a note in her work file. Hoffmeyer filed a complaint with the local police but has yet to hear back.
“I’m not one to try to make things about race,” he said. “I’ve pretty much grown up with only white people, myself.” The AP noted that the girl and teacher who cut Jurnee’s hair were both white. Hoffmeyer is biracial and Jurnee’s mother is white.
Hoffmeyer said he’s now deciding whether or not to keep Jurnee in the public school system or move her to a private school.
