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.”
“She went to the school last year and didn’t have any problems,” Terrance Parker pointed out. “It hurt my feelings to the core.”
And from the way that 7-year-old Tiana wept as she spoke to KOKI, it was obvious that her feelings were hurt as well.
“They didn’t like my dreads,” she said. “I think that they should let me have my dreads.”
Tiana has now been enrolled in a new school, which welcomes her hairstyle.
