Michigan father files $1M lawsuit after teacher cuts daughter’s hair

A Michigan father filed a $1 million lawsuit against a local school district after a teacher cut his daughter’s hair.

Jimmy Hoffmeyer is suing Mount Pleasant Public Schools (MPPS) as well as a teacher’s assistant and a librarian, arguing that the incident led to his daughter’s constitutional rights being violated, according to the Detroit Free Press.

In the lawsuit, Hoffmeyer also alleges that his daughter Jurnee, who is biracial, was affected by racial discrimination, ethnic intimidation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault and battery due to the incident, the news outlet reported.

Hoffmeyer told The Associated Press that on March 23 his daughter came home with the hair on one side of her head cut off, saying that a classmate used scissors to perform the cut on the school bus. He later took Jurnee to a hair salon to have her hair styled in an asymmetrical cut in order for the differing sides to look more uniform.

In the following two days, Hoffmeyer reportedly said that his daughter came home once again with a haircut, this time with the other side of her hair cut off.

“I asked what happened and said, ‘I thought I told you no child should ever cut your hair,’” he told the Free Press. “She said, ‘But dad, it was the teacher.’ The teacher cut her hair to even it out.”

In July, the MPPS Board of Education found in an internal investigation that the employee who cut Jurnee’s hair was not motivated by racial bias. It said that cutting a student’s hair “is a clear violation of school policy” but that it was “clear that MPPS employees had good intentions when performing the haircut.” 

Hoffmeyer told the AP at the time that he was skeptical that an investigation was conducted, saying that the school district never reached out to him or his daughter.

“They never questioned my daughter or me,” Hoffmeyer said. “Who did they talk to? Did they really do an investigation?”

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