8-Year Old Black Girl Was Not Allowed to Take School Pictures Because of Her Hair

Jackson, MI — The parents of Marian Scott, an 8-year old Black girl from Michigan, say she was denied to have her school picture taken because she had red braids in her hair. The school, Paragon Charter Academy, has responded saying the 3rd-grader’s hair violated their picture day policy.

“Marian didn’t leave out the house, go down the street, and go get this done on her own,” Marian’s father, Doug Scott, told WILX. “She’s 8 years old. We did this ourselves in our home and there’s no way I felt like this would happen.”

Paragon Charter Academy said that they are implementing a strict dress code as written in its student handbook. Their policy states that the hair should be in natural color to be allowed to be photographed.

The school also claims they have sent out a recorded message to inform about the dress code before the picture day. Doug, however, said he did not receive the message or else he would have changed his daughter’s hair.

“Had I seen the email, I probably would have told Marian’s mother to not do it, but I guess I think it’s good that this happened because now people are going to get the opportunity to see what is really going on,” he said.

Marian was sent back to class after the incident. And it puzzles her father why she was allowed in class, but not in the picture.

“If she’s not a disruption to the class, then why is she a disruption to the picture?” he asked.

Meanwhile, Marian went to school with black hair on the next day of class. She will have her picture taken in November.