Last week, at least two kids in the world got in trouble at school for doing comically awful things to their hair.
Danny Valdes, a student at Harns Marsh Middle School in southwest Florida, earned a trip to in-school suspension earlier this month when he showed up with impressive images of the Miami Heat logo, the Miami area code and the Miami skyline on various parts of his scalp.
Instead of just letting the kid fester in in-school suspension, though, a school counselor allegedly decided it would be a good idea to shave his head without permission from his parents, reports local NBC affiliate WBBH.
School district officials insist that the 11-year-old boy’s stepfather, Arnaldo Fernandez, gave permission for the buzz over the phone.
Fernandez denies this claim. He said he merely promised to make Valdes presentable once he got home that day.
“It’s frustrating because to me it seems like they think they got the power to do whatever they want,” the stepdad told WBBH.
It was Fernandez, the proprietor of Cutting Edge Barbershop, who cut the intricate design into his stepson’s tresses.
“I wanted to get my hair like that to show how proud I am of my Heat,” the boy told the NBC station.
“It was a cool haircut and it was ruined.”
The reason for the new ‘do was that the middle schooler had attended a Heat game over winter break. (The Heat won, 102-97).
Administrators Harns Marsh Middle School deemed the hair a distraction and, for some reason, gang-related. They say they won’t fire the counselor but they did tell him never to cut a kid’s hair again.
The boy’s mother told WBBH that her son will now be attending a different school because of the incident.
Meanwhile, in Cornwall (the southwest tip of England), another 11-year-old boy, Zac Eccleston, was similarly sent to the British version of in-school suspension earlier this month because he got Das Auto imprinted in the back of Das Hair.
Officials at Camborne Science and International Academy did not approve of the VW logo on the back of Eccleston’s skull, reports the Daily Mail.
The boy’s mother, a hairdresser by trade, was upset that the school didn’t like the haircut. In response, she took her son out of school for a week until she was able to negotiate an agreement with school officials.
Apparently, Eccleston never cut his hair but it was growing back enough to suit administrators.
“It’s ridiculous,” the boy’s mother, Charlotte, told the Mail. “It’s clear there’s a school uniform policy but a haircut isn’t a uniform.”
The school’s vice president disagreed.
“Hairstyles are absolutely part of the school uniform and we don’t accept extreme haircuts,” he told the Mail.
Eccleston had gotten the VW logo emblazoned in the back of his head because he is an aficionado of the Volkswagen brand.
Kids who do ridiculous things to their hair and then show up at school will, of course, always be with us.
Last year’s newsworthy kid manes included a few girls who dyed their hair bright red. (RELATED: High school ginger wins battle to sit in class with incandescent cherry-red hair)
There was the five-year-old boy who got suspended because school district officials deemed his new Mohawk hairdo too cool for kindergarten. (RELATED: Badass Mohawk gets kindergartener suspended from school)
There was also the high school kid who was sent home because he got Johnny Manziel’s face painted into his scalp. (RELATED: ‘Johnny Football’ hairdo creates big buzz at Texas high school)
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