School threatens to expel 12-year-old student over her natural hair

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12-year-old Vanessa VanDyke faced with expulsion over natural hair

An Orlando private school is being blasted after ordering a 12-year-old student to cut her hair or face expulsion from the academy. Vanessa VanDyke and her parents contacted Click Orlando after Faith Christian Academy made the absurd demands. The school told VanDyke whose attended the school since the third grade with her natural hair, that she needs to chop off her tresses after she reported bullying from other students over her coiffure.

“It says that I’m unique,” said Vanessa about her chemical-free hair. “First of all, it’s puffy and I like it that way. I know people will tease me about it because it’s not straight. I don’t fit in.”


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Reasonably upset over the suggestion Vanessa’s mother Sabrina Kent blasted the school and told Click Orlando that she believed her daughter was being treated unfairly.

“A distraction to one person is not a distraction to another,” said Kent. “You can have a kid come in with pimples on his face. Are you going to call that a distraction?”


“I’m going to fight for my daughter,” she later added. “If she wants her hair like that, she will keep her hair like that. There are people out there who may think that natural hair is not appropriate. She is beautiful the way she is.”

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School administrators have since backed down on their demands for Vanessa to cut her hair and instead say that she should style it differently.

“We are not asking her to put products in her hair or to cut her hair,” read a statement sent to Click. “We are asking her to style her hair within the guidelines according to the school handbook.”

Faith Christian Academy’s handbook does not ban natural hair but notes that students aren’t allowed to have mohawks, shaved signs, or rat tails.

Vanessa VanDyke’s hair debacle comes just months after an Oklahoma private school sent 7-year-old Tiana Parker home for her dreadlocks. The school labeled her hair a “distraction.”

-danielle canada

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