Current Events > Dad sues school district for $1M after daughter's hair cut without consent

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jurnee-hoffmeyer-mount-pleasant-jimmy-hoffmeyer-michigan-lawsuit/

The father of a 7-year-old Michigan girl whose hair was cut in school without her parents' consent has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the school district, a librarian and a teacher's assistant.

In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Grand Rapids against Mount Pleasant Public Schools, Jimmy Hoffmeyer alleges his biracial daughter's constitutional rights were violated. He is also suing for racial discrimination, ethnic intimidation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and assault and battery.

Hoffmeyer, who is Black, said in March that his daughter Jurnee arrived home from Ganiard Elementary in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, with much of the hair on one side of her head cut. Jurnee said a classmate used scissors to cut her hair on a school bus, Hoffmeyer told The Associated Press earlier this year.

"Jurnee had long, curly hair prior to it being cut off," the complaint states.

Two days after the bus incident and after her father complained to the principal and took Jurnee to a salon to style her hair in an asymmetrical cut to make the differing lengths less obvious Jurnee arrived home with her hair cut on the other side.

"I asked what happened and said, 'I thought I told you no child should ever cut your hair,'" Hoffmeyer said at the time. "She said, 'But Dad, it was the teacher.' The teacher cut her hair to even it out."

The district "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," according to the lawsuit.

In July, the Mount Pleasant school board said the staffer who had cut Jurnee's hair had been reprimanded. The school board also said an independent investigation determined that, despite the "good intentions" of the worker who cut the girl's hair, the employee had violated school policy by cutting the student's hair without permission from her parents and without the knowledge of district administrators.

Th investigation found no racial bias, the school board said. The investigation included interviews with district personnel, students and families, as well as a review of video and photos, including posts on social media, the district said.

Other schools have drawn unwanted attention for policing the hairstyles of students of color. In 2018, a New Jersey high school student was forced to cut off his dreadlocks to compete in a wrestling match. In 2019, an 11-year-old cheerleader in Colorado was cut from a private cheer team because she didn't wear her hair in a ponytail like her White and Latina teammates. And two Texas high school students were suspended from school in 2020 because they refused to cut off their dreadlocks.

Amy Bond, the Mount Pleasant school board president, said Thursday the district has not received the lawsuit.

"We are confident that the facts will prevail given our district's appropriate and aggressive response to the incident and the findings of the third-party investigation that was conducted," Bond said in a statement. "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."



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When will schools learn that this shit is not okay?
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Smashingpmkns posted...

When will schools learn that this shit is not okay?

never

School board president sounds awfully...defensive:

"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."

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Holy shit why would you do this?

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Okay, this is very fucked up.
But $1M is a bit much, now it sounds like a money grab.

$10,000, put it in a savings fund, with interest, that she can't touch until she's 25.
At that point, it would be a reasonable nest egg.

Also, someone should be fired.
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brestugo posted...

School board president sounds awfully...defensive:

"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."

What's their defense going to be? "No we didn't cut her hair it was the barbershop down the street"?

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$1,000,000 just seems like an opportunistic cash-grab. There's no way you experienced a million dollars worth of trauma.

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SiO4 posted...

Okay, this is very fucked up.
But $1M is a bit much, now it sounds like a money grab.

$10,000, put it in a savings fund, with interest, that she can't touch until she's 25.
At that point, it would be a reasonable nest egg.

Also, someone should be fired.

$10k is chump change

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Hexenherz posted...

What's their defense going to be? "No we didn't cut her hair it was the barbershop down the street"?

They are probably denying the racial discrimination not the fact a teacher was being dumb and cut a students hair for them.

SoggyBottomBoy posted...

$10k is chump change

Is it? Invested over decades?

Also, if you want to hook me up with some of your chump change, then hook me up!!
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Schools should not do this kind of thing.

But the parents are worse - theyve seen $$$$$ instead of seeing this as an opportunity to inform and educate. (Im not against reasonable compensation eg $10k - 25k, a million is just ridiculous.)

I see why they're angry, but I don't see the racist motivations? Maybe I need more sleep, but it seems the teacher was(stupidly) just trying to help out.

Even if she was dumb as fuck in doing so.
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Fuck that school

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CapnMuffin posted...

They are probably denying the racial discrimination not the fact a teacher was being dumb and cut a students hair for them.

That might be the case, but I feel like even if they win that battle, they'll still have to prove they have the right to physically touch a child and take scissors to the kid's hair, no?

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SiO4 posted...

Is it? Invested over decades?

Also, if you want to hook me up with some of your chump change, then hook me up!!

I meant in relation to this particular incident. Sorry for the confusion.

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How is race a factor? Another kid messed up her hair, and they evened it out. Her hair was acceptable before.

Unless there are some unreported details this is a bit of an overreaction imo.

Although I highly doubt the parent elected anywhere near that settlement. It's just inflated to show their anger.

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SoggyBottomBoy posted...

I meant in relation to this particular incident. Sorry for the confusion.

Ya, I know. But shooting for $1Mil is a bad look.
If they were looking for a settlement closer to what I suggested, it would be a better look.

Also, that Million has to come from somewhere, so it's either going to be cutting funding or taxing the residents of the school district.

I probably would have made a good teacher, but it's shit like this that made me never think seriously about it...and that was before School shootings were just considered a part of life.
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SiO4 posted...

Okay, this is very fucked up.
But $1M is a bit much, now it sounds like a money grab.

$10,000, put it in a savings fund, with interest, that she can't touch until she's 25.
At that point, it would be a reasonable nest egg.

Also, someone should be fired.

Lawsuits will usually start at a higher amount because they will get negotiated down.

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Null_Gain posted...

Lawsuits will usually start at a higher amount because they will get negotiated down.

I realize that...I'm just saying that is where they should settle at, if they want to go down that road.
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