An outraged father in Michigan has filed a lawsuit for $1 million against staff at his 7-year-old biracial daughter’s school after they cut her hair without his permission. According to MLive, the lawsuit filed by Jimmy Hoffmeyer on behalf of his daughter Jurnee names Mount Pleasant public schools, a teacher’s assistant, as a librarian as those at fault. In total, the lawsuit includes eight counts, including one which claims the school violated Jurnee’s civil rights and both ethically and racially discriminated against her.
“I asked what happened and said ‘I thought I told you no child should ever cut your hair,'” Jimmy Hoffmeyer said at the time to her daughter Jurnee. “She said ‘but dad, it was the teacher.’ The teacher cut her hair to even it out.” https://t.co/TgMheVkahV
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 17, 2021
- The staff who cut Jurnee’s hair were white. Hoffmeyer, who is Black, revealed that Jurnee’s hair had been cut by another student on the school bus in March. He took his daughter to a hairdresser to even out the cut, but a few days later, staff had cut her entire head of hair.
- Apparently, the teachers thought they were better hairdressers than trained professionals. Recalling his conversation with Jurnee about the cut, he told the Associated Press: “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.” The librarian is the one who cut Jurnee’s hair, leaving only a few inches, Hoffmeyer says.
- Hoffmeyer believes the school is just as guilty as the staff members who cut his daughter’s hair. In the lawsuit, Hoffmeyer says that the school district “failed to properly train, monitor, direct, discipline and supervise their employees, and knew or should have known that the employees would engage in the complained of behavior given the improper training, customs, procedures, and policies, and the lack of discipline that existed for employees.”
- The teacher in question had been reprimanded but not fired. The Mount Pleasant public schools board of education claimed that after an independent investigation, it found “no evidence the incident was motivated by racial bias” and that the teacher had “good intentions.” However, they did concede that cutting a student’s hair without parental permission or the school’s approval violated their policy. The teacher was put on a “last chance” agreement.
- Hoffmeyer’s attorney believes the incident and the school district’s response is “unacceptable.” As Shawndrica N Simmons told the Washington Post: “This matter is a serious one and should have been taken seriously by the school district. They are paid to teach, not to be barbers for the day to shape a child’s hair in a way they deem acceptable.”
