Hayleigh Black’s hair is apparently too red for school.
The 16-year-old has donned the fiery shade of locks for the past three years. It didn’t stop her from being in the marching band or getting good grades, but for a school in Alabama, it was “too distracting” and she was sent home.
This all unfolded on the first day back from summer vacation at Muscle Shoals High School. Classes had been in session for only a half-hour, according to a WAFF-TV report.
The teen’s mother, Kim Boyd, had just dropped the teen off at school, but a phone call from the principal’s office brought her right back.
“Nothing was ever said last year,” Boyd told WAFF-TV. “Never got any calls, never sent home anything that said it had to be changed up until today.”
Superintendent Brian Lindsey told the TV station that four students were sent home that day for violating the part of the dress code that calls out, “Hair which has been dyed a bright or distractive color.”
They only permit students to come to school with naturally colored hair. Two of the other female students sent home had pink and orange hair.
Boyd says she is just glad Hayleigh only dyes her hair.
“It wasn’t a tattoo that she wanted or piercings, or something. There are so many girls that do it and there could be worse things,” Boyd told ABC News in another interview.
If Hayleigh wanted to keep her hair, she would have to either remove the color or dye it a darker shade of red.
If the school could have waited a few weeks, Hayleigh could have given her hair a good rinse with shampoo containing sulfates or let it fade because red hair dye is the hardest to maintain compared to brown or black.
However, Hayleigh wasn’t allowed to come back to class until she did something with her locks. She changed the color just so she wouldn’t miss any more school.
