Student suspended over dyed hair

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — A local honors student is fighting back after she was suspended over dyed hair.

Lithia Springs High School ninth-grader Heaven Wiggins recently dyed her hair a maroon color, but school officials said that violates a rule that has been a board policy and in the student handbook for years.

"As far as hair color, it's not a distraction. I mean, we're high-schoolers. No one's going to be like, 'Her hair's so amazing. I can't stop looking at it,'" Wiggins said.

A school rule prohibits "unnatural colored hair or any hair style which causes a distraction to the learning environment." On that basis, the principal gave Wiggins 10 days of in-school suspension Monday, with potentially more to come if she didn't change her hair.

"It's almost like they're just really abusing their authority. They're going overboard," Wiggins' mother, Star Dallas, told Channel 2's Eric Philips.

She met with the school principal Monday. Dallas said she told him the dye job wasn't drastic, but he said they'd have to agree to disagree.

Since the meeting, school officials have agreed to let Wiggins return to class until she and her mother can bring the matter before the school board in two weeks.  She said even if the school board doesn't side with her, she will continue fighting.

"I stand firm," Dallas said.

Though Dallas admitted she wouldn't have let her daughter dye her hair if she'd known about the rule, she would have still fought for a revision.

WSBTV