We all do it or have done it- sitting in class playing with our hair (heck, I still do it). And that’s just what little Lamya Cammon was doing while sitting in her first-grade classroom. Her mom, Helen Cummingham, says she usually does it when she’s distracted or nervous.
On November 28th, Lamya’s teacher got ‘frustrated’ when Lamya kept playing in her hair, which was braided with beads. Initially, the teacher told her she wouldn’t be able to go to recess if she didn’t stop, but Lamya go to go on. After recess, she was still twirling her hair, so the teacher asked Lamya to come to the front (Lamya says the teacher offered her candy). When she went up there, the teacher reached for scissors and cut off one of Lamya’s braids. And according to Cummingham and Lamya, the teacher threatened to cut off more if she kept playing in her hair.
According to an interview with essence.com, when Cummingham asked the teacher about it, she kept saying, “I didn’t cut her hair,” “I cut this part.” Apparently the teacher didn’t know that it was actually Lamya’s hair; she thought it was extensions or microbraids (does that make it justifiable?). Cummingham believes the teacher doesn’t feel like what she did was wrong.
While Milwaukee Public Schools have done nothing against the teacher, she was given a $175 citation for disorderly conduct after Cummingham called Milwaukee Child Welfare Bureau.
Check out the entire interview here
The first thing I thought when I read this is I play in my hair all the time. I guess sending children to the principal’s office for not follwing instructions is out the door.
I know, right! I play in my head, all the time, everywhere. And yeah, sending kids to the office must not be the norm anymore. *smh*