Principal fixes insecure student's hair instead of punishing him for wearing hat

A principal in Indiana, US is winning hearts for helping out one of his students by fixing his haircut instead of disciplining him for wearing a hat in violation of school dress code.

Jason Smith was asked to step in when student Anthony Moore refused to take his hat off after having a half-an-hour conversation with the school dean.

“I sat across from him and asked, ‘What’s wrong? Why are you being defiant? Why are you refusing to take your hat off? It’s a pretty simple request,” Smith said. “And he explained that his parents took him to get a haircut and he didn’t like the results.”

“I told him, ‘Look, I’ve been cutting hair since I was your age,’ and I showed him pictures of my son’s haircuts that I did and some of me cutting hair in college. And I said, ‘If I run home and get my clippers and fix your line, will you go back to class?’ He hesitated but then he said yes.”

Smith drove back home to get his stuff to the school and called up Anthony’s parents for consent to give his hair a trim.

“He didn’t say straight out, but I feel like he didn’t want to be laughed at. The barbershop and hair cuts as Black males is very important in the community and looking your best and being sharp — it’s just a cultural aspect. Just from my being a Black male myself and coming through that culture and you know, I really think girls matter at that age, which [means] appearance then could matter. He was scared he was going to be laughed at and we were pretty sure no one would notice, but he was looking through his lens,” he continued.

The principal gave the student’s hair a touch-up and checked on him throughout the day and found that he was studying and didn’t have his hat on.

“All behavior is communication and when a student is struggling, we need to ask ourselves what happened to this child instead of what’s wrong with the child. What need is the child trying to get met and really, the future of urban education rests on that question,” he said.