A six-year-old boy in Florida missed his first day of school because administrators at the private Christian school he was enrolled at said he could not attend class until he cut his dreadlocks.
Clinton Stanley Sr, the boy’s outraged father, took to Facebook this week saying that the staff at A Book’s Christian Academy in Apopka told him that his son’s hairstyle violated school policy.
Stanley captured the exchange with school officials in a Facebook Live video.
‘My son just got told that he cannot attend the school with his hair,’ Stanley says.
As the father films, six-year-old Clinton dressed in the school’s uniform and wearing a bookbag, stands outside the door.
Six-year-old Clinton was told that he could not attend class at A Book’s Christian Academy in Florida because of his dreadlocks
The boy’s father filmed the encounter as school administrators told them that the dreadlocks violate the school’s hair policy requiring boys have short hair
‘If that’s not biased then I don’t know what is,’ he says. ‘Personal opinion.’
Stanley asks if he could braid his son’s dreadlocks up, but a school official tells him she doesn’t think that’s allowed because ‘it has to be above the ears’.
‘That’s crazy,’ Stanley says, telling his son not to worry. ‘He ready to go to school, but he can’t.’
Another administrator tells Stanley that she will have to un-enroll Clinton from the school.
‘I don’t want him here period. That’s his hair,’ he responds, pointing out that the female teacher’s hair is to her shoulders. ‘What’s the difference? … That’s a rule, I respect that. It’s just not right. It’s not. … That’s not very disrespectful and biased. I should have been told this months ago.’
The school officials then tell Stanley that the policy on hair is in the school handbook, but Stanley says it should specifically state that dreadlocks are not allowed.
At one point in the video, Clinton asks his father to put his hair up in a ponytail but Stanley says the school won’t allow it.
School officials at A Book’s (pictured) said the policy has been in place since the school was founded in 1971
Clinton Stanley Sr said he un-enroll his son from the school and put him in a public school. Clinton is pictured on his first day of school at his new school
Stanley said instead of cutting his son’s hair – which Clinton wanted in dreadlocks – he enrolled the little boy in a public school. Clinton started at Lovell Elementary School on Tuesday.
An administrator for A Book’s told The Ledger that its policy requiring boys have short hair has been implemented since the school was founded in 1971, and nearby private schools have similar rules.
‘No dreads,’ administrator Sue Book said. ‘All of our boys have short hair … It’s the style of hair. We don’t allow it. We never have.’
Book said the policy is listed in their parent/student handbook. Stanley, however, pointed out in a Facebook post that the school’s handbook also states: ‘Since all children are created in the image of God, no student will be denied admission because of race, color or national origin’.
Clinton Sr (pictured in an older photo with his son) said he plans to hold a community meet up on Thursday to ‘discuss discrimination policies that target black hair and black children in schools’
‘A Book’s Christian Academy can out this in the handbook but turn him around (sic) cause of his dreds,’ Stanley wrote.
Book also denied claims that race was a factor telling the outlet that 95 per cent of the students at the school are black.
‘I’ve had all kinds of obscene, ugly calls,’ Book said. ‘It’s just hard.’
Stanley said he plans to hold a community meet up on Thursday to ‘discuss discrimination policies that target black hair and black children in schools’.