KTRK-TV(PEARLAND, TX) — A junior high school administrator was placed on leave and could face disciplinary action for allegedly drawing on a student’s head with a permanent marker.
Juelz Trice, a seventh-grader at Berry Miller Junior High in Pearland, Texas, got a new haircut last week featuring a carved design. When Trice went to school the next day, a staff member allegedly informed him that his new hairdo was against the dress code and said he would be punished unless he allowed the carved haircut to be filled in with a marker.
Trice said that although the incident made him feel uncomfortable, he didn’t want to argue or resist at the time.
“It was the talk of school that day and the day after,” Juelz told ABC Houston station KTRK in a recent interview.
Juelz’s mother, Angela Washington, said she didn’t find out about the incident until after her son got home from school that day.
“I was very upset,” Washington told KTRK. “He got off the bus and he got into the car and said, ‘Look what they did to my head.'”
Pearland Independent School District said Trice’s haircut was in fact against the dress code, which states, “Hair must be neat, clean and well groomed. Extreme hair styles such as carvings, mohawks, spikes, etc. are not allowed.”
Still, the school district said in a statement that the staff member “mishandled disciplinary action” by giving the student the option to have the shape of his hair carving colored in with a marker, which is “not condoned by the district and does not align with appropriate measures for dress code violations.”
“Pearland ISD is extremely disappointed to learn of a situation that occurred at Berry Miller Junior High,” the school district said in the statement on Tuesday. “The campus administrator is currently on administrative leave. Further action is forthcoming.”
Washington said the school has called to apologize and that the administrator shared his side of the story.
“They were very apologetic, but it still happened,” Washington told KTRK. “Nobody should think that is the correct way to handle a situation.”
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