Chicago mother furious after boy says CPS teacher cut his hair without permission
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A mother of a Chicago Public Schools student said her son's teacher cut his hair without permission, and she has not received an explanation from CPS administrators.
A long braid was cut from 7-year-old Montel Gould's head, and he wishes he could glue it back on. He usually wears his hair with the braid, and it's important to him, too.
"It's not just hair," said Montel's mother, Tasia Glass. "This part of him. This is part of the body, part of his identity."
Last week, at Walt Disney Magnet School, 4140 N. Marine Drive in the Uptown community, Montel's mother picked him up to find some hair missing—a result of something that had happened at indoor recess.
"One of the friends had dared him to cut his hair, so a few strands were missing," said Glass.
Glass raised concerns to the school about the lack of supervision that allowed all three kids to cut their hair.
"How are three children able to sit around and cut their hair unnoticed?" she said.
But the next day, when Montel went back to school, Montel and his mom said a teacher had cut the long braid that had hung over his face.
"He came up to me and said: 'My teacher cut my braid. I told her no,'" Glass said. "I was very angry because I had no phone call, no email, no nothing."
When Glass came to the school, she said she was given no explanation for what had happened by the principal or anyone else. So, she filed a police report and an incident report with CPS.
"That says my voice doesn't matter; his voice doesn't matter," Glass said.
As the mother waited for a better understanding, CPS said: "We take any allegation of inappropriate employee conduct very seriously. School and District officials are working to support the affected student."
CPS added that a review of the incident was underway Tuesday.
Yet Glass said there is nothing a teacher could do or say to justify altering her son's appearance.
"She's out of line," Glass said.