Jimmy Hoffmeyer, the father of a 7-year-old Michigan girl whose hair was cut by a teacher without permission, decided to file a $1 million lawsuit against the school district, a teacher’s assistant and a librarian.
On Tuesday,MLive.comreported that the lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Grand Rapids against Pleasant Public Schools. It claimed that Jurnee (biracial) was subject to ethnic intimidation, racial disparity, emotional distress, and assault and battery.
Hoffmeyer claimed that his daughter returned from school with a substantial amount of her hair (which extended all the way down her back), removed from her side. Hoffmeyer also stated that another classmate had done it while they were on the bus.
“I mean, I chalked it up because it was a child, and you’re not thinking of any serious consequences having to do with a kid,” Hoffmeyer toldABC12/WJRTin April.
That same day, Hoffmeyer took Journey to a salon to even out the other child’s work while leaving Jurnee’s hair around shoulder-length.
She returned home the next day with her hair in a crew cut.
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She insisted that it wasn’t fellow classmates this time—it was a staff member.
“After that teacher cut her hair, she was so embarrassed, so embarrassed that she had to go back to class like that,” Hoffmeyer toldWJRT.
Hoffmeyer reached out to the school in an attempt to get answers to his questions about the incident.
Flash forward to July, the Mount Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education said that the staff member who cut Jurnee’s hair had been reprimanded.
An independent third-party investigation believed that despite the worker’s presumed pure intentions to cut her hair, not receiving permission from her parents and without informing the district administrators was a violation of school protocol.
Two other staff members were aware of the incident, but did not report it. According to the school board, all three staff members have apologized for the situation.
The school board further said that the independent investigation didn’t see any evidence of racial bias and included interviews with students, families, district personnel, and a review of photos and videos, including social media.
The district conducted an internal review of the incident, but Hoffmeyer stated that neither Jurnee nor he were questioned.
On Thursday, Amy Bond, the president of Mount Pleasant Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education, claimed that the district hadn’t received a complaint,CBC Newsreported.
”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.
She also noted that they would continue to “aggressively defend against these baseless allegations in court” and won’t let this situation veer them from their goal to “provide every child a world-class education that prepares them for college and careers.”
Now, Jurnee attends another elementary school.