The father moved his daughter into a different school after a classmate and teacher cut the young girl’s hair on separate occasions.
What We Know:
- Jimmy Hoffmeyer, who is biracial himself, is the father of 7-year old Jurnee Hoffmeyer. Hoffmeyer stated he was considering taking his daughter out of Mount Pleasant Public Schools and enrolling her into a private one instead. Mount Pleasant is about 150 miles northwest of Detriot, and less than 5% of its residents are Black.
- The incident occurred on March 25th when Jurnee came home from Gainard Elementary School with most of the hair on one side of her head cut. She told her father that a classmate had cut her hair on the bus home using scissors. Two days after this, Jurnee came home with the hair on the other side of her head cut as well.
- Hoffmeyer said his daughter was crying, afraid that she would get in trouble. Hoffmeyer told his daughter not to let any other student touch her hair, but Jurnee told him it was a teacher this time. The teacher had apparently tried to even her hair out, but Hoffmeyer hasn’t accepted any of the excuses offered by the district.
- Hoffmeyer said the school’s principal told him the most that would happen to the teacher involved was a note in her work file. The principal repeatedly asked Hoffmeyeer what she could do to make it go away. The district’s superintendent called and offered to have “I’m sorry” cards mailed to the family, but Hoffmeyer said he “got mad and hung up.”
- In a statement, District Superintendent Jennifer Verleger stated, “Regardless of their good intentions, these actions were unacceptable and show a lack of judgment on the part of our two employees.” Verleger personally apologized to Hoffmeyer’s family as well.
Hoffmeyer has two other daughters besides Jurnee, aged 8 and 4. Hoffmeyer filed an incident report with the police but has not received a follow-up to his complaint.
