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Sherry McNeily said her 11-year-old daughter Hannah walked in a Childersburg Middle School bathroom May 7th to untangle a knot in her hair and walked out with an unwelcome haircut. "A 5th grader from a different class came in and Hannah asked her will you help me finger the knot out of my hair," said Sherry McNeily.
McNeily said the other student took out some scissors and snipped off 8 inches of her daughter's hair. "Until two weeks ago she could sit on her hair. You can see all the different lengths where she just took the scissors and went right across," said Sherry McNeily.
She pointed to Hannah McNeil's uneven hair length as proof. "We have not done anything and we will not trim it up. That's just the way it is," said Sherri McNeily.
Mrs. McNeily said any parent would be outraged if this happened to their child, but because her family is United Pentecostal it is an especially big deal. "One of our basic, fundamental doctrines is that a woman's hair should be uncut. We get that out of Corinthians where it talks about how a woman's hair is her glory and she has power on her head with her uncut hair," said Sherry McNeily.
However McNeily did not think school administrators were taking it very seriously.
A Public Information Officer for Talladega County Schools issued this response Wednesday. "Administrators at both the school and central office investigated this reported incident thoroughly and could not find any facts that support the parent's allegations," said Gayle E. Jones.
But according to Sherry McNeily, it was the second such incident to happen at the school where she has served as a volunteer teacher. She said the first time she called the other child's mother at home and the child confessed. "The next day they did discipline that child at school, but not until I had pushed it with that mother," said Sherry McNeily.
McNeily said the Superintendent agreed to look in to the matter and get back in touch with the family, but never did.
She said she wants the student to be punished and their parents to be notified of the incident, as well as an apology from the Childersburg Middle School Principal. She has also requested that Hannah be allowed to attend another Talladega County school for which the family is not zoned.
Attorney Barbara Weller with the Florida based Christian Law Association is representing the McNeily family, but Weller said they were hoping to avoid a lawsuit.
Barbara Weller also represented Terry Schiavo’s family, the Schindler's, during the legal struggle to keep Schiavo's feeding tube connected. Schiavo died after the tube was disconnected in 2005.
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