A father in Michigan is demanding answers after his daughter’s hair was not only cut by a student on the school bus but then, after he took his child to a salon to have the damage repaired, cut again, this time by a teacher without his knowledge or approval.
Jimmy Hoffmeyer said his daughter Jurnee Hoffmeyer, who at the time had been a student at Ganiard Elementary school in Mount Pleasant, came home with much of her hair cut on one side of her head, The Associated Press reported.
The incident happened on March 24, WFQX reported.
Jurnee told her father that another student cut her hair with scissors while they were on the school bus. He had been told by school officials that the classmate took the scissors off the teacher’s desk and that the student would be dealt with and parents would be contacted.
Hoffmeyer complained to the school’s principal and took his daughter to a hair salon to repair the damage. They opted for an asymmetrical cut to make the length differences less obvious, the AP reported.
But a couple of days later, his daughter came home from school, with her hair cut once again.
At first, Hoffmeyer thought a classmate had cut his daughter’s hair again.
“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 told the AP.
Hoffmeyer complained to the school’s principal who said that all that can be done to the teacher who cut Jurnee’s hair was for a note to be placed in her work file.
He was not able to find out why it happened, WFQX reported.
“It happened once and you would think, they had calls from us, us being mad and all of this from a child doing it. What made you think it would be OK if an adult did it? I don’t understand what her reasoning [was],” Hoffmeyer told WFQX.
He said the district’s superintendent called, eventually offering to send a note of apology to the family.
Hoffmeyer said he got mad and hung up.
The AP and WFQX tried to contact the Mount Pleasant school superintendent and principal. Neither returned messages left by the news outlets.
WFQX also reported that despite repeated attempts to have the issue discussed at a recent school board meeting, it was not.
Hoffmeyer has moved his daughter to another school because of the incidents but may enroll her in a private school, the AP reported.