Mom says her son’s teacher gave him a ‘Dumb and Dumber’ haircut for violating school’s dress code

A furious Texas mom says her teenage son was left humiliated after the principal removed him from class for a teacher to cut off his bangs which were deemed longer than the school’s dress code allowed.

Lane Kiesling, 16, was told three weeks earlier that the length of his bangs violated the dress code at Hico Independent School District, but his mother Amy Martin told NBCDFW that finances made getting the haircut difficult. 

‘Money’s really tight right now. We just moved and there’s a lot of expenses and a haircut’s just not even on my radar right now,’ said Martin. 

‘It was well below my eyebrows but it was on top of my glasses so it never got in my eyes,’ Lane said of his hair. ‘It just got close.’

The photo posted by Lane’s mother on Facebook shows the uneven strands of his bangs after the teacher took scissors to his hair 

Martin went on to post to Facebook on Wednesday that her son came home crying after the teacher ‘made him look like Jim Carry in Dumb or Dumber but worse.’

The principal allegedly told the teen on Tuesday morning that a teacher with a cosmetology license would take care of the haircut issue after school, according to Lane.

Instead, Lane says he was taken out of his 7th period class where the teacher said she would only be cutting his bangs. After the choppy cut, the embarrassed teenager returned to the ridicule of his classmates for the rest of the day.

Martin would go on to call the principal who said the teacher claimed it was Lane’s fault for looking down during the haircut, but she said the administrator apologized and offered to take the student to fix the haircut.

Amy Martin, Lanes’ mother, says that their financial situation made it difficult to get her son the haircut he needed to fall in line with the school’s dress code

Martin shared pictures of her son before and after his haircut, adding that he came home from school crying

After posting her son’s story, Martin says she received private messages about a history of problems at the Hico ISD

However, Martin also clarified that she thinks highly of the majority of the staffers at her son’s high school

‘He came back crying again,’ Martin wrote about Lane after they took up the principal on his offer. ‘He said the principal just told him how it was his fault and belittled him the whole time. It’s a real small town, there were people they know there. He is humiliated.’

She attempted to file a police report about the incident, but was offered a campus officer to take a statement.

Martin did not want to talk to an official connected to the school and was unable to file a complaint with either the local police department or the sheriff. 

‘As part of our commitment to provide a safe and secure learning environment, Hico ISD has a student code of conduct and student handbook that is comprehensive. Student expectations are shared at the beginning of every school year,’ the district wrote in a statement to NBC. ‘We also ask parents to sign off on our procedures which are based on community values.’ 

The Hico Independent School District’s dress code governs the acceptable length of a student’s hair

According to the school’s handbook, another option for Lane would have been to be assigned in-school suspension

Martin would go on to post on Facebook that others have told her stories of abuse and mistreatment at the school district. 

She called for other parents and students to speak up against the ‘elitist crap,’ but she added that ‘most of the Hico ISD staff are fantastic!’

Both mother and son would have preferred Lane had been given an in-school suspension as an option according to the rules for the dress code violation. 

‘I know it’s just hair. It grows back,’ Martin said. ‘But it’s not like she just gave him a haircut. She hurt his self-esteem. His self-image. That’s the problem.’