Teacher Ties Boy's Hair Into Pigtails, Encourages Class To Mock Him As A Girl

An Ohio woman has filed a federal lawsuit against her son's elementary school after his teacher mocked his long hair by tying it into pigtails. According to the suit, the teacher then brought the boy to the front of the class and encouraged his classmates to mock him with feminine versions of his name. Allegedly, the teacher finished by taking a photo of the crying boy with her cell phone.

"It was embarrassing," Amanda Anoai said. "They had no reason to touch my son, to embarrass him, to make him feel bad." She said her son was accustomed to some teasing about his long hair and had never let it bother him. But she said this time was different because it was humiliating, rather than good-natured, and because it involved adults who should know better. Anoai said the incident traumatized her son and prompted him to transfer from Boyd E. Smith Elementary to a different school in the middle of the school year. She said she now drives her son to a school much farther from home because the district does not provide him bus service. "He shouldn't have to switch elementaries and start over," she said. "We've had to change our lives because of this."

The suit charges the school, the teacher, and the system superintendent with "offensive gender-based harassment" and failing to protect the boy's constitutional rights.