An American dad has sued a school and is demanding for $1 million compensation after his 7-year old girl’s hair was shaved without the parents’ permission.
According to the law suit that was filed at federal court in Grand Rapids, Jimmy Hoffmeyer accused Mount Pleasant Schools for violating his daughter’s constitutional rights, racial discrimination, ethnic intimidation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery.
The suit was filed against the school district, a teacher and a librarian.
Jimmy said that his daughter Jurnee Hoffmeyer went home from Ganiard Elementary School with much of the hair on one side of her head cut off on March 23.
When asked how it all happened, she claimed that a female classmate used scissors to cut her hair while on the school bus.
In order to make the uneven hairs not so obvious, the father took his daughter to a salon to get her hair styled. He is also said to have reported the bus incident to the school principal.
Two days later after Jurnee donned a new hairstyle, she returned home with her hair cut off on the other side.
“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,” Hoffmeyer said.
In the lawsuit Jimmy accused to school of failing to properly manage its employees.
“The school 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 law suit reads.
Jimmy’s daughter who now attends a different school is biracial as only her mother is white. He said that the girl and the teacher who cut Jurnee’s hair were white.
In July, the Mount Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education said the employee who cut Jurnee’s hair was reprimanded. The board added that an independent investigation determined that despite “good intentions” of the worker who cut the girl’s hair, doing so without permission from her parents and without the knowledge of district administrators violated school policy.
The other two employees who were aware of the incident but did not report have since apologized.
On his side, Jimmy said the board never questioned him or his daughter concerning the issue
“They never questioned my daughter or me. Who did they talk to? Did they really do an investigation?” He remarked in an interview with the Associated Press.
The board has however termed Jimmy’s accusations as baseless saying that they are going to defend themselves in court.
“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,” Amy Bond, president of Mount Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education, said.
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