A school administrator in Texas is on leave after drawing on a seventh-grader’s head with a marker for violating the district’s dress code, according to officials.
The unidentified administrator at Berry Miller Junior High in Pearland gave the student three options after the boy recently went to school with a haircut that didn’t comply with district regulations because of a design shaved into his head, officials said.
The options were to notify the boy’s mother, give him disciplinary consequences — or have the “hair carving” filled in with a marker, the district said. Only the first two were condoned by the district.
The school staffer “mishandled” the situation by drawing on the boy’s head, school officials said.
“This latter practice is not condoned by the district and does not align with appropriate measures for dress code violations,” according to a district statement. “The campus administrator is currently on administrative leave. Further action is forthcoming.”
The district’s dress code explicitly bans “extreme” hairstyles such as carvings, Mohawks and those with spikes, school officials said.
District officials have contacted the boy’s family to express their “sincerest apology and extreme disappointment” for the incident, according to the statement.
But the boy’s mother, Angela Washington, said she was never notified of the problem until her son, Juelz Trice, came home from school earlier this month.
“You should’ve been like, ‘OK, we need to call your mother first to let her know what’s going on,’ and no one did that at all,” Washington told KTRK-TV.
Washington said her son didn’t resist the unorthodox punishment because he’s a shy, respectful child who listens to his elders. And although the administrator called Washington later to apologize, she and her husband aren’t entirely satisfied by that response.
“They were very apologetic, but it still happened,” Washington told the station. “And for an adult, nobody should think that that is the correct way to handle a situation.”
The administrator even laughed as he used the marker, as if the act was some type of “joke,” according to the boy’s father, Dante Trice, who said he was “totally disappointed” by the incident.
“What they done to my son is wrong, and somebody needs to pay for it some type of way,” Trice told the station.
Calls seeking additional comment from the district, including to Superintendent John Kelly, were not returned Friday.
