Father takes his biracial daughter out of school after teacher cut her hair without permission

A father in Michigan has taken his biracial seven-year-old daughter out of school because her hair was cut by a classmate and a teacher on two separate occasions.

Jimmy Hoffmeyer moved his daughter Jurnee to a new school but is also considering moving her out of Mount Pleasant Public Schools and enrolling her in private school.

The seven-year-old came home from school, Ganiard Elementary, on 24 March with much of the hair on one side of her head having been cut.

Mr Hoffmeyer told the Associated Press that his daughter said that a classmate had used scissors to cut her hair while they were on the school bus.

He complained to the principal and took his daughter to a hair salon in an attempt to fix the issue. But two days later Jurnee came home having had the hair on the other side of her hair cut.

Mr Hoffmeyer said: “She was crying. 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.’

“She said ‘but dad, it was the teacher.’ The teacher cut her hair to even it out.”

Mr Hoffmeyer said the school told him after what had happened on the bus that “the little girl stole the scissors off the teacher’s desk, and they were going to talk to the parents and deal with it accordingly".

The father added that after the second incident, the principal told him that at most, she could add a note in the library teacher's work file.

“She said she didn’t have the authority to do anything. She kept asking me what she could do to make it go away," he said. He added that he has filed a report with the local police.

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Mr Hoffmeyer said he later got a call from the school district’s superintendent. He said she could have “I’m sorry” cards sent to the family. Mr Hoffmeyer said he "got mad and hung up".

“I’m not one to try to make things about race. I’ve pretty much grown up with only white people, myself,” Mr Hoffmeyer said. He has two other daughters, aged eight and four. He said both the classmate and teacher who cut his daughter's hair are white.

According to the US Census Bureau, the city of Mount Pleasant had just under 25,000 residents in 2019. Almost 86 per cent are white, and just over four per cent are Black.

District Superintendent Jennifer Verleger confirmed Mr Hoffmeyer's version of events in a statement released on Tuesday. She said Jurnee’s teacher was aware that a library employee was planning to cut her hair. The action was taken without the parents’ permission or consultation with administrators at the school.

Ms Verlager said: “Regardless of their good intentions, these actions were unacceptable and show a lack of judgment on the part of our two employees. Both are being reviewed for further disciplinary actions in accordance without school policies and procedures.”

Mr Hoffmeyer is working with the National Parents Union, a network of parent organisations and activists working to improve children’s quality of life.

The Union's midwest delegate, Bernita Bradley, described the incident as “modern-day scalping” and said that it was motivated by race, MLive reported.

She said: “It equates to the fact that you don’t like something that naturally grows out of my body and to ostracise me, you scalp me.”

Ms Bradley added: “Jurnee and her siblings are literally on edge. Jurnee just doesn’t have the same spark in her smile anymore, and her dad said the most traumatic thing to him right now is the fact that Jurnee won’t sleep by herself. Jurnee feels infiltrated. Her whole demeanour is different.”

The Independent has reached out to Ganiard Elementary’s principal for comment.