A lawsuit was filed against a Michigan school district after a teacher cut a 7-year-olds hair without her parents' permission.
According to AP News, Jimmy Hoffmeyer, the girl's father, filed a $1 million lawsuit against Mount Pleasant Public Schools. The lawsuit alleges that the biracial girl's constitutional rights were violated, racial discrimination, ethnic intimidation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery.
Hoffmeyer, who is half black and half white, said in March, his daughter, Jurnee, came home from Ganiard Elementary School with some of her hair cut off on the side of her head. Jurnee told her dad that a classmate cut her hair on the school bus. Hoffmeyer complained to the school district about the incident and took his daughter to get her hair fixed at a salon.
Two days later, Jurnee got home with her hair cut again but on the other side of her head. "I asked what happened and said, 'I thought I told you no child should ever cut your hair,'" Hoffmeyer told AP News. "She said, 'but dad, it was the teacher.' The teacher cut her hair to even it out."
The Mount Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education said the staff member who cut Jurnee's hair was reprimanded. After an independent third-party investigation, it was determined that although the teacher had "good intentions," cutting the girl's hair without a parent's permission or verifying it with district administrators, the actions violated the school's policy.
Along with the teacher who cut Jurnee's hair, two other staff members knew about the incident and did not report it. The school board says all three have apologized and after the independent investigation, which included interviews with district personnel, students and families, as well as a review of photos and a video, there was no evidence of racial bias.
Hoffmeyer says the district did not question him or Jurnee during their third-party investigation.
Following the incidents, Jurnee's parents moved her to a different school.