JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Sarra Brown was angry when she contacted News4JAX on Friday morning.
That’s because Brown got a call from her 11-year-old son Cameron Murray at school a week ago.
“He said, ‘the teacher, the teacher, he kept trying to get my cap off my head,’” she said.
The reason why Murray wears caps at school is because he has alopecia areata. It’s a disease that causes hair loss.
Brown said Cameron has permission to wear hats all year. But she said the teacher at Westview K-8 does not teach a class her son is in but cursed at him and told him to remove his hat.
“I felt sad,” Murray said.
Murray started losing his hair around age 7. Now he has just a few strands of hair on his head.
Brown said the reason the incident with the teacher is so upsetting, is because her son has been bullied by other students because of his condition.
Some have even snatched his hat off.
According to the latest data from the National Institute of Health, in 2017, 23% of children with alopecia said they had been bullied.
Brown said this latest incident with her son is something she takes seriously because she doesn’t want him to become depressed or have something worse happen to him.
According to a study by Yale University, victims of bullying are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than kids who are not bullied.
“Anyone that works around students needs to maintain a professional demeanor at all times and I understand at times it’s hard working with children because there can be a lot going on,” Brown said. “I feel they should have immediately removed him.”
News4JAX reached out to Duval County School District for a comment on the incident they sent us a statement that reads in part:
“We are aware of an incident where a student and a teacher had a negative verbal exchange involving a disciplinary matter unrelated to the student wearing a head covering.
During the interaction, the student was asked to remove the head covering in accordance with the code of conduct. At no time did the student or the teacher remove the covering.
Following the incident, school leaders confirmed that the student had special permission to wear a head covering and also reached out to the student’s family regarding this incident.”