Marian Scott, an 8-year-old girl who attends Paragon Charter Academy in Jackson, Michigan, was heartbroken after school officials denied her a school picture due to her hairstyle.
The school's principal, Ben Kriesch, claims the red tint in Marian's bun violates school policy, which demands student's hair color be "of natural tones."
8-year-old girl denied school picture because of hairstyle/youtu.be
He would later inform the press that students violating this policy were given a week to have the issue corrected.
Picture day happened to fall in that week.
Marian's father, however, doesn't think this explanation holds water.
"All of this is uncalled for, they didn't even call us. 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?"
Though Marian's father is highly disappointed, he has no plans to withdraw her from the school, though he is calling for better communication from the staff in the future.
"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."
Though CNN affiliate WILX reports the school claims to have sent recorded messages the Sunday prior to picture day with details regarding the dress code.
Marian's father says he never received it.
Either way, he says he's glad the issue is receiving some attention, because he believes there was nothing distracting about his daughter's hairstyle.
"Had I seen the email, I probably would have told Marian's mother to not do it, but I guess I think it's good that this happened because now people are going to get the opportunity to see what is really going on."
Controversies surrounding school dress codes which often discriminate about Black hairstyles have become somewhat commonplace. This instance is similar to that of a 4-year-old boy in Texas who was recently forced to either braid his hair and pin it up in a bun or cut it off per school rules.
California Governor Gavin Newsom recently took steps towards avoiding these issues by signing the Crown Act, which stops dress codes from prohibiting "afros, braids, twists and locks."
In accordance with school policy, Marian has removed the red in her hair and plans to retake her picture at a later date.
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