A mother from Massachusetts is looking to sue a Dracut town group home, after staff sent her daughter to a salon to shave her head, with one of them claiming that her curly hair would grow back straight.
“I am very upset. And I’m not going to stop being upset because I feel like my child was assaulted and violated,” mother Denise Robinson told NECN.
Robinson said the group home never contacted or even asked permission to shave her 7-year-old daughter’s hair. Tru is now nearly fully bald.
When the mother dropped off her daughter at Little Heroes Group Home earlier this month, her hair reached well past her shoulders, according to Daily News. Robinson said staff only told her the decision to cut off the hair was for hygiene reasons.
According to Yahoo, Robinson first took to Facebook to open up about the incident.
“Tru was assaulted yesterday at school and anyone who knows me know that I never claim racism — But why was my daughter’s head shaved?” she wrote. “There are three other girls in her class, two white girls, one black, none of these girls got scaled. Why Tru??” she wrote.
THIS SCHOOL SHAVED THIS CHILDS HEAD WITHOUT PERMISSION!!!!!!!!! ??? pic.twitter.com/6kvoMNiK6z
— k boo (@AsForLitaa) October 18, 2017
Little Heroes said in a written statement that it was looking into the situation.
“Decisions regarding grooming are based on a variety of factors, including hygiene,” according to the release. “A review of circumstances is underway to determine what occurred and, if necessary appropriate action will be taken.”
But Robinson is not happy with the homes response.
“There was no hygenical reason to shave my child’s head. There was no head lice. There was no bed bugs,” Robinson told NECN. “Her hair was [in] two ponytails on the side on Saturday and it was braided in the ponytails and there was nothing wrong.”
The Department of Children and Families is investigating the incident and Robinson has now enlisted the help of attorney Richard Kendall, WHDH reported.
Her lawyer said he was shocked by what the volunteer staff told the girl before she received her haircut, Daily News reported.
“The volunteer informed this seven-year-old biracial child that by shaving her head, her hair would grow back straight,” Kendall told reporters. “I find that appalling.”
The mother said the haircut incident has negatively impacted her daughter.
“She’s a very emotionally damaged young lady with behavioral issues, and to put this on top of the whole entire thing is really rough,” Kendall said.
