RED ROCK, Okla. (KFOR) — A family in Red Rock, Oklahoma, wants answers after their son, who is autistic and non-verbal, came home from school with his hair cut. The family said long hair is part of their Native American culture and wants to know what happened.
“A simple I’m sorry, or even a phone call would have helped and made me feel a lot better, but still nothing has been said,” said Rachelle Plumley, a concerned parent.
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Rachelle Plumley dropped off her 7-year-old son at school last week and was told by her son’s special education teacher they would be working with scissors in class that day.
“He stated I hope nobody cuts their hair,” said Plumley.
Rachelle said she sent her son, Asiah, to school in a slicked back long braid and saw bangs at the end of the day.
“When he walked in the door, we noticed obviously his hair was cut,” said Plumley.
Asiah is nonverbal and autistic, so they asked his teacher what happened.
“She said he went behind the teacher’s desk, just took the scissors, and cut his hair,” said Plumley.
However, Rachelle doesn’t believe that.
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She said her son’s classroom has three teacher aides and her son is required to have someone with him at all times.
Now, she feels like the school let her down.
“Even if he did to this to himself, I feel like the school is still held accountable for not paying attention and being there for my son that I’m trusting them to do everyday.
Rachelle is thankful most of her son’s long hair is still there, but is sad to see part of it cut off.
“In Native American culture, it does represent strength and it means a lot to us and he wouldn’t have done this to himself,” said Plumley.
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Frontier Public Schools gave a statement:
We take a lot of pride in what we do here in Frontier about our Native American heritage as well as any other heritage we have. But there was accusations that a student got their hair cut by a school employee. We took that very seriously and we checked into it and investigated. That did not happen. I can’t go into detail on the student’s situation, but we did do a thorough investigation and a school employee did not cut a student’s hair. We did investigate. We had an administrator investigate, we had a school resource officer as well and then i also did some investigating as well.
Superintendent Erron Kauk, Frontier Public Schools
Rachelle said she hasn’t heard from the school at all, but has a meeting Tuesday morning with the superintendent and is hoping to get more answers.
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