A Michigan father moved his 7-year-old biracial daughter from one school to another after the child’s hair was cut on several occasions by a classmate and teacher.
Jimmy Hoffmeyer said Monday that he is also considering getting his daughter, Jurnee, from Mount Pleasant Public Schools and enrolling her in a private school.
On March 24th, Jurnee came home from Ganiard Elementary with a great deal of hair cut on one side. She said a classmate used scissors to cut her hair on the school bus, Hoffmeyer told The Associated Press.
Two days later – after complaining to the director and having Jurnee’s hair styled in a salon with an asymmetrical cut to make the different lengths less obvious – Jurnee came home with the hair cut on the other side.
“She was crying,” said Hoffmeyer. “She was afraid of getting into trouble for having her hair cut.”
“I asked what happened and said, ‘I thought I told you that no child should ever cut your hair’, ‘he continued.’ She said ‘but Daddy, it was the teacher.’ hair cut to make it even. “
Hoffmeyer said the explanations he received from the director and the district did little to him.
The school called after the bus incident and “said the little girl stole the scissors from the teacher’s desk, and they would talk to the parents and handle it accordingly,” he said.
Later, the school principal told him most that could happen to the library teacher was a note in her work file, Hoffmeyer said.
She said she didn’t have the authority to do anything, he added. “She kept asking me what she could do to make it go away.”
Hoffmeyer said he had filed an incident report with the Mount Pleasant Police Department, but as of Monday no officer had contacted him to follow up on the complaint.
Hoffmeyer said he received a call from the district superintendent about a week later after spring break from school. She offered to send “I’m sorry” cards to the family, he said.
“I got angry and hung up,” said Hoffmeyer, who is black and white. Jurnee’s mother is white.
“I’m not one to try to make things about the race,” he said. “I almost grew up with only white people.”
The girl who cut Jurnee’s hair is white. The teacher who cut it is also white, said Hoffmeyer, who has two other daughters, ages 8 and 4.
Mount Pleasant is located about 150 miles northwest of Detroit. According to the US Census, about 4% of Mount Pleasant’s 25,000 residents are black.
Hoffmeyer works with the National Parents Union, a nationwide network of parent organizations and activists advocating for improving the quality of life for children.
In a statement released late Tuesday, district inspector Jennifer Verleger confirmed Hoffmeyer’s story and added that the child’s teacher was aware of the library employee’s plan to cut the student’s hair. Hair was cut without the consent of the student’s parents or without consultation with school administrators.
“Regardless of their good intentions, these actions were unacceptable and testify to a lack of judgment from our two employees,” Verleger said in a statement. “Both are being assessed for further disciplinary action in accordance with the school’s policies and procedures.”
Verleger added that she personally apologized to the student’s family.
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Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan.
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This story has been corrected to show that a voicemail was left Monday afternoon asking for comment from Ganiard’s director.