Student Forced To Shave Head Because Principal Is Clueless About the Military

The story is so simple, and yet the actions are baffling, idiotic, and infuriating.

Seven year old Adam Stinnett’s older stepbrother is in the Army, and has previously served in Afghanistan. Like many little brothers, Adam wanted to copy big brother, so he got a “high and tight” haircut.

Adam Stinnett's haircut
Adam Stinnett’s haircut
But apparently, Principal Monti Hillis is uneducated when it comes to military haircuts, and young Adam ended up in the principal’s office because either she or someone on the staff believed that it was a “mohawk.”

But the school called it a distraction and forced his mom to shave the child’s head after sending a note home with Adam.

Adam’s mother Amy says she told the school the haircut was not a mohawk, that it was a military haircut. “Well, we’re not a military school and that it has to be cut or he cannot return to school until it is,” was the response Amy says was given to her by the school. “It broke my heart. It pretty much crushed a seven-year-old’s dreams” Amy stated.

I love the line “we’re not a military school” as repeated by the mom. Because Adam Stinnett attends Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School in McMinnville, Tennessee, which happens to be named after Medal of Honor recipient David Robert “Bobby” Ray, a Navy Corpsman who died in Vietnam. From the school’s own website:

Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School is named as a tribute to all veterans. Our namesake, David Robert ‘Bobby’ Ray, attended our school when it was a high school. After graduation, he enrolled at the University of Tennessee Knoxville before joining the military. He was killed at Phu Loc, Quang Nam Province in Vietnam on March 12, 1969. Because of his heroic efforts to save the lives of his fallen comrades while under heavy fire, Ray was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor becoming the only Warren Countian ever to be so honored.

The school mascot is the “Stars” because the Medal of Honor is in the shape of a star. The school colors are navy and white for the United States Navy. Is anyone else ready to choke on all the irony here?

When asked for comment, the Director of Schools (this district’s version of superintendent) chickened out.

Schools Director Bobby Cox wouldn’t comment on this case but said the district doesn’t have a policy against military haircuts and it’s up to each school to determine if a haircut is distracting.

So in a school named after a Medal of Honor recipient, it’s “distracting” to have a military-style “high and tight” haircut.

Unless there is more to the story than this, I’m thinking that all the adults involved are ignorant of who they are attempting to honor at this school, and that they had better educate themselves on what a REAL “distraction” is. Because a real distraction is the hole they have just dug for themselves with their absolute stupidity – not one little boy’s haircut.

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