Second-Grader Gets Military-Style Haircut To Honor His Soldier Brother, His School Makes Him Shave It Off

A Tennessee second-grader got a special haircut to honor his older stepbrother who serves in the Army, but his school made him shave it off, calling it “distracting,” Fox News is reporting.

Seven-year-old Adam Stinnett idolizes his older stepbrother, who is currently in the U.S. Army. Wanting to be like his big brother, like so many young boys do, Adam got what’s called a “High & Tight” haircut — a short buzz cut on the sides, with a little left on top. High & Tight cuts are popular in the military, and his brother wears one.

But that wasn’t acceptable to the principal at Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School — a school which, perhaps ironically, was named after a Vietnam War hero. The unnamed principal e-mailed Adam’s mother, Amy Stinnett, telling her the military-style haircut had to go.

“I have the utmost respect for the military and its members. However, we are not a military school and the boy’s haircut is against our rules.”

Ms. Stinnett refused.

The next day, according to The New York Post, Adam and his mom were in the principal’s office, being issued an ultimatum: either the military style haircut goes, or Adam won’t be allowed to return to school.

“We were told that we had to either cut his hair or he could not return to school.”

Not wanting her son to miss school, Amy complied. Unfortunately for the second-grader, shaving off a High & Tight doesn’t leave much hair at all, and so now Adam is basically bald. The irony was not lost on Fox News blogger Todd Starnes.

“Apparently the principal at Bobby Ray Elementary School doesn’t seem to think a bald-headed second grader is going to cause a distraction.”

The outraged mom took her story to the media, and that’s when the McMinnville school district began feeling the heat for the principal’s decision. The McMinnville Southern Standard ran the story with the headline, “Military Haircut Deemed Distracting By Bobby Ray Elementary.”

The story brought so much controversy to the school district’s Facebook page that it had to be taken down, according to WMAZ (Macon). School district director Bobby Cox declined to say if there were “specific threats” against the school, but said that the matter has caused the school “great stress.”

Mr. Cox said that the school district is looking toward re-considering its hair guidelines in order to make sure that what happened to Adam Stinnett doesn’t happen again.

Do you believe the school was in the right for sending a second-grader with a military haircut home for having “distracting” hair? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

[Image courtesy of: Fox News]