One Texas mother is demanding answers after a school administrator allegedly drew on her son's head with a marker to fix his "inappropriate" haircut, KCBD reported last Friday.
Monica Esquivel, of Plainview, is even more upset at Coronado Middle School administrators for not telling her an unnamed assistant principal used a marker to fill in the shaved line on her son Kobi's head.
Plainview ISD officials said Kobi's haircut, what she describes as a "comb over" with a shaved line on one side, goes against the dress code. The school also told his mother it's a haircut that could be considered gang-related, Esquivel said.
"My son is not in a gang, he's not trying to be in a gang," she told KCBD. "He dresses in khakis, a shirt, not in loose pants or anything, just real nice and casual. He isn't representing a gang or anything."
The middle-schooler had the same haircut for the past five months, according to his mother. But all of a sudden last week the school said his hair was a distraction.
Greg Brown, executive director for Plainview ISD's Administrative Services, confirmed to the Plainview Daily Herald the incident took place, but said he could not offer further comment except to relay the district's dress code.
"Our dress code prohibits designs shaved into the scalp and this includes lines," Brown said, adding the dress code is in the student handbook available online and in hard copy. As for the school employee involved, "any concerns or practices that affect our kids will always be addressed," he said.
Esquivel staunchly denies Kobi's haircut violates the dress code. She wants school administrators to apologize and for the dress code to be updated.
"They're expecting...the kids, they get distracted on stuff, but it's starting to get where everything is a distraction to them," Esquivel told KCBD.
School officials said the dress code might be updated next school year and if it is, the incident will be taken into consideration.
