Story of my life: Teacher tells adorable black child her dreadlocks are “distracting”

Via Raw Story

The more things change, the more they stay the racist same.  I was the only black person in my grade until high school so the story of Tianna Parker, a 7 year old girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma broke my heart.  This poor child was sent home from school because teachers consider “dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable.” Show me the tape of little Jimmy with the fohawk being sent home in tears and I might not be so upset (I’d still be upset)?!

Via Raw Story:

A father in Oklahoma said this week that he was forced to pull his daughter out of classes after the charter school she was attending sent her home for having the wrong hairstyle.

Terrance Parker told KOKI that he is a barber and he always made sure that his 7-year-old daughter, Tiana, had an appropriate haircut for school.

“She’s always presentable,” he explained. “I take pride in my kids looking nice.”

Officials from Deborah Brown Community School in Tulsa declined speak to the station on camera, but the school policy states that “hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable.”

KOKI reported that the “school feels that could distract from the respectful and serious atmosphere it strives for.”

No wonder you have people like comedian Sheryl Underwood slamming natural hair and calling it disgusting.  She must have grown up in Tulsa.

Or where I grew up where I had to either deal with teachers not understanding my hair, or the other children touching my hair without permission.  The latter still happens to me today.  This story makes me sad for the Tiana Parkers of the world because it’s the ignorance of adults which could strip just a little of this girl’s self-esteem. Let’s hope that doesn’t stick.