A Michigan dad is taking legal action after a school employee took it upon herself to cut his biracial 7-year-old daughter’s hair without his permission.
via People:
Jimmy Hoffmeyer filed a $1 million lawsuit against Mount Pleasant Public Schools, a librarian and a teacher’s assistant on Tuesday, according to MLive.com. The lawsuit alleges racial discrimination, ethnic intimidation and that his daughter’s constitutional rights were violated.
Hoffmeyer previously told USA Today that his daughter Jurnee had to get an asymmetrical hairstyle after a classmate cut one side of her hair by a few inches. Days later, his daughter returned home with the other side of her hair cut, Hoffmeyer said, adding that he later learned an employee of the school was responsible.
Both the student and employee who cut Jurnee’s hair are white, per the Associated Press.
“The Defendants 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 lawsuit alleges, reported MLive.com.
In a previous statement regarding the incident, the school said that Jurnee “grew unhappy and dissatisfied with the way her hair looked after the other student cut it and asked a school library employee to help fix her hair during a classroom visit to the library.”
Jurnee’s teacher was also made aware of the situation, the school said.
“Regardless of their good intentions, these actions are unacceptable and show a lack of judgement on the part of our two employees,” the statement continued. “Both employees have admitted their actions and apologized.”
The school said in July that following a third-party investigation, the employee who cut Jurnee’s hair, who is white, “will be placed on a ‘last chance’ agreement during which time any future violations will likely result in termination,” according to the Associated Press. Additionally, the investigation found no evidence of racial bias, the school said.
The school district has since released a statement about the lawsuit, saying they are “confident that the facts will prevail.”
“We will aggressively defend against these baseless allegations in court and will not allow this to distract us from our mission to provide every child a world-class education that prepares them for college and careers,” read a statement from Mount Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education president Amy Bond, per the AP.
We’re not sure if race is explicitly at play here based on the story, but knowing how the world works — it probably is.
