This infuriating "tale" (their words) appeared in the San Francisco
Chronicle, page A20, on October 3:
Adelanto,
San Bernardino County
Nine-year-old Dawayne Hairson was shocked when his teacher suddenly
cut off the boy's lifelong pigtail.
"He threw it on my desk. I got sad and started crying," said the
fourth grader at Harold H. George Visual and Performing Arts Magnet
School. "I like my tail."
After realizing the boy's feelings were hurt, the teacher took him
to the principal's office to call his parents, David and Pamela
Hairston.
"He (the teacher) offered to shave off his beard," said a frustrated
Pamela Hairston, who wants the school to discipline the teacher for
barbering without parental consent.
"My son's 9 years old. He needs my permission to do anything," said
Hairston, noting her son had been growing the strand since birth and,
when unbraided, it ran the length of his back.
A battery report was filed with police, Lieutenant Scott Burnell
said. No arrest will be made unless the San Bernardino County
District Attorney's office decides to file a criminal charge.
"I've never seen anything like this," Burnell added.
A secretary at the school refused to give the teacher's first name,
but the Daily Press of Victorville identified him as T. Madoo.
Principal Victoria Magathan said she would not comment. "This is
a personnel matter," she said. "By law, we cannot comment."
Young Hairston's tale began when the boy told his teacher that he
could not find the square footage of Arizona in his textbook.
"He said, 'If I find it, I get to cut that thing off the back of
your head,'" the boy said.
Thinking that his teacher was only joking, he said, "OK".
The teacher found the answer and then cut the tail off, the
boy said.
To paraphrase Frank Zappa:
'Teachers just can't get used to the idea that your hair is your brain ends.'
This boy and his parents ought to sue this jerk and he ought to be banned from teaching for life. If he had done anything like that to a girl the public outcry would be deafening.
I have heard of a person getting sued for tens of thousands of dollars and spending time in jail for cutting off someones ponytail. I believe it was a case in a restaurant between two adult customers. One was joking with the about cutting the ponytial off and he thought she gave consent to cut it off. In a case of an adult battering a child, this as much more serious.
I have heard of a person getting sued for tens of thousands of dollars and may have spent time in jail for cutting off someone's ponytail. I believe it was a case in a restaurant between two adult customers. One was joking with the other about cutting the ponytial off and he thought she gave consent to cut it off. In the case of an adult battering a child, this as much more serious.
Surfing the web, I came across the following link of a similar story. I will try to investigate to see what became of it.