Mom Sues Group Home After They Shave Her Daughter’s Head Bald Without Permission
Denise Robinson of Dracut, Massachusetts was picking up her 7-year-old daughter from Little Heroes Group Home when she found out her daughter’s long locks had been chopped off. Nay, shaved off. Tru, her daughter, who had been dropped off with her hair braided in pigtails, is now bald.
Little Heroes is a state run program for children with mental health and behavioral needs where Tru spends several nights a week. Robinson, furious at the home for having shaved her daughter’s head demanded to know why they had done so. She gives details in an interview with NECN.
“There was no head lice, there was no bed bugs, there was no Rasta locks was going on...there was nothing wrong with her hair,”
Little Heroes commented that they had done so for reasons of “hygiene,” but Robinson and her lawyer are taking action against the facility because they feel that it was never an issue of hygiene, and rather an issue of race.
Before and after: this Mom says program SHAVED HER DAUGHTER’S HEAD without permission, told her it would grow back straight @boston25 pic.twitter.com/VniNk4yLw0
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) October 20, 2017
“They made a game out of it while they were cutting her hair, and after they cut her hair, then they told her oh, it will grow back straight don’t worry.”
In a statement to the press, Robinson’s attorney Richard Kendall proclaimed the case a biracial issue, in which Tru’s carers implied that having straighter hairs is better than having “dread, curly hair.”
"I am very upset. And I'm not going to stop being upset because I feel like my child was assaulted and violated.”
Little Heroes has been slow to offer their defense, but then again, what could you possibly say in defense of shaving off an innocent child’s hair without permission. Even calling this an FML is belittling the issue. This is much more than that - it’s discriminatory and inexcusable.
