Marian, an 8-year-old student at Paragon Charter Academy in Jackson, Michigan, says that she felt “singled out” and cried after she wasn’t allowed to have her school picture taken because of her hair. What was so wild about a third-grader’s hairstyle? Something offensive, racist, or mocking of another student or teacher, maybe? Nah. She had red extensions in her hair, which was wrapped up in a bun. That’s it.
As reported by WILX, however, Ben Kriesch, principal of the school, said that the red hair extensions violate school policy. Why? Because a student’s hair has to be “natural” tones.
"All of this is uncalled for, they didn't even call us," Doug Scott, Marian’s father, told WILX. "They let her stay in school. ... So if she's not a disruption to the class, then why is she a disruption to the picture?"
On the school’s end, Kriesch explained that students have a one-week grace period to change their hair, so that’s why Marian was allowed to stay in class. School officials say they also sent a recorded message reminder to all parents about policies before picture day.
Still, Scott is frustrated that the school’s administration didn’t reach out to the family directly when her hair became an issue. "If they would have reached out to us and say come get her ... she's got a hair issue, we need you to change it, that's not allowed--I would have been fine with why this happened, but they didn't reach out to us," Scott continued to the station.
For now, Marian has returned to school without her red extensions. The family doesn’t plan to pull her from the school or take additional action as of yet. She can have her school picture taken next month. Eventually having her picture taken doesn’t erase the trauma and embarrassment of being “singled out” over her hair, though.
It’s unknown if any other students were also denied a school picture because of “unnatural” hair. But it’s hard to read about this little girl’s experience without remembering that black women, in particular, are policed for their hair.
In the military, for example, dreadlocks were
banned until 2017. The TSA recently had to change its
policies because of “racially discriminatory” hair searches. It’s such a chronic problem, in fact, that some states, like California, have introduced bills like
The CROWN Act to help protect black women from hair-related discrimination. New York City recently issued
guidelines that protect black workers, offering legal protections for people who have been discriminated against or punished because of their hairstyles on grounds of racial discrimination.
You can check out the family’s interview below: