father files $1M lawsuit after teacher cuts daughter’s hair
In the state of Michigan, a father sued his daughter’s school district for $1 million after the instructor shaved her head.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Jimmy Hoffmeyer has filed a lawsuit against Mount Pleasant Public Schools (MPPS), a teacher’s assistant, and a librarian, alleging that the incident violated his daughter’s constitutional rights.
Hoffmeyer also claims in the lawsuit that his biracial daughter Jurnee was subjected to racial discrimination, ethnic intimidation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and assault and abuse as a result of the incident.
The hair on one side of her head had been shaved off on the school bus; according to Hoffmeyer, who spoke to the press, a classmate had used scissors on the child. He afterward took Jurnee to a hairdresser to get her hair groomed in an asymmetrical cut to make the different sides look more uniform.
Hoffmeyer claimed that his daughter returned home two days later with a new haircut; this time with the opposite side of her hair shaved off.
According to the Free Press; “I asked what occurred and added, ‘I thought I told you no child should ever cut your hair.'” It turned out to be the teacher, she explained. To make things look more even; the teacher had her hair chopped short.
As of July; an internal investigation by the MPPS Board of Education found no evidence of racism on the part of the MPPS employee who cut Jurnee’s hair. It ruled that while cutting a student’s hair “is a blatant breach of school policy,” it was “obvious that MPPS staff had good intentions while administering the haircut.”
At the time; Hoffmeyer told the Associated Press that he doubted whether an inquiry had been completed because the school district never contacted him or his daughter.
Hoffmeyer said that neither she nor her daughter had ever been interrogated by the authorities. “Who were the people they spoke with?” “Did they really do an investigation?” you ask.
