Hair cut at school - lack of supervision

[fernie3]

My daughter (reception age) came home from school with one of her pigtails cut off. The teacher told me she had found it on the floor and traced it back to my daughter (she was the only one with half her hair missing). The teacher couldnt explain what happened and didnt know if my daughter had cut it off herself or if someone else had done it.
My daughters hair is thick and so cutting of an entire pigtail takes a sharp scissors!.

I didnt say anything at the time because I dont like reacting in the spur of the moment and I was quite upset to see her hair hacked off.

I have tried asking her what happened but she just curls up in a ball on the floor and makes whining noises which no matter how nicely I try she wont stop doing so I gave up.

Would I be unreasonable to question this

why was my daughter alone with something sharp enough to cut her pigtail straight off?

Is it unreasonable for me to have expected the teacher to have at least have been close enough to see what happened even if not to stop it (i know how fast 5 year olds can move!)

I am taking her to the hairdresser tomorrow but im not sure what they can really do to improve it

omg

You definitely need to question supervision

awful situation

i would be thinking more about why she cut it....

obviously the teacher has a classful of kids. she has one pair of eyes...

or was there another child involved?

I would be fucking livid. Not sure whether that would be with teacher, child or situation. Maybe "very cross" with all 3 = livid.

Hope your dd is okay. She sounds very upset. I'm pretty shallow and would be upset about my dd's beautiful hair being hacked but even more so to see her obv in distress about it.

I can understand the teacher not seeing it actually happen.

But no child should have had access to such sharp scissors, unless sitting working at a table with an adult.

I would imagine some one else cut it.

When children do their own hair they usually go for the fringe IME.

Oh my God. I'd have gone apeshit.

Did the school say whether they'd be making any attempts to find out what happened?

Yes, I do think you are entitled to question exactly what went on here. She may well have done it herself, or have collaborated with someone else, and be embarrassed and upset when you question her because she didn't realise quite what the results would be. Foresight is not a gift Mother Nature bestows on many 5yos...

Last time this was discussed on MN it turned out hair cutting is practically a developmental stage all on its own. And there were some amazing stories of what people (posters when they were kids and their own children) had got up to, even when the parents thought all the sharp scissors were safely tucked away!

yes thats what I thought (when I got home and my horror had cleared a little!) I didnt mind her using scissors but I thought that they should have had an adult (teacher or teaching assistant) with them while they were using them rather than being alone with them.

I dont have any idea why she would cut it, she has never done anything like it before BUT yesterday she got into trouble for the first time ever at school for "hitting another child with a piece of paper". She told me that the other child kept saying "hum" so she hit her with the paper she was colouring on {hmm]

Can see why you are upset. Don't know what's worse - the idea she did it herself (confusing/annoying) or someone else doing it (very upsetting and worrying).

My first instinct would not be to blame the teacher though.

Mind you, good point from Lynette, would be quite hard to cut off your own pigtail (unless it was very loose).

that should be first time I get to use that smilie and i mess it up

I don't think the teacher can possibly see everything that goes on in the classroom - but I am surprised a five year old had access to something sharp enough to quickly snip off a thick pigtail. However, I imagine your DD probably did it herself - certainly the curling into a ball and whining noises sound quite typical of my DDs' at that age when they were overcome with the horror at the magnitude of their own offence - and I have to say that DD3 cut her own hair in bed one night last year - I came in in the morning to find a scissors lying on the bed and hair all over the pillow. She was six at the time. Should I have made sure she didn't have access to a scissors? I don't know.
I actually think, on balance, you do need to have a word with the teacher but it is equally the sort of thing that could have happened at home too unless you keep your eye on her every moment - and at five they are really a bit beyond that. She needs to learn that actions have consequences - and waiting for your hair to grow back is certainly a consequence.

oh i think id have to say something but i dont fancy your chances of finding out what happened. though id make it clear i wasnt happy.

id be really upset too. how much has been cut off?

VicarInaTuTu its alot of one pigtail cut straight across her hair is normally shoulder length and one side is now half way down her ear.

fernie what a pisser.

hopefully you'll find out more over the weekend...

We don't know how much access the perpetrator had. It could have been a case of scissors lying on the teacher's desk or even in a drawer, in which case the teacher wouldn't really be to blame; in that case, the child who did it (whether the OPs dd or another) would know perfectly well that they were naughty to do so= the blame is on the child. Though 5yos shouldn't be given sharp scissors unsupervised, you can't be expected to lock up scissors like you would lock up medicine from a toddler. I didn't keep my marker pens locked up at home when dd was 5; yet when she wrote on the carpet with them, I certainly didn't think of blaming myself for giving her access to them: she knew she wasn't allowed and they were in a drawer she had no permission to open.

It is quite possible that the dd and a friend were involved: her reaction certainly suggests both that she was involved and that she knew she was doing something forbidden. Usuallyt 5yo girls are not that worried about getting somebody else into trouble as long as they know they are going to be in the clear. The only other circumstance I could think of where a child would be likely to react like that (curling up in a ball and whining instead of answering questions) would be if she was really frightened by another child.

As a year 1 teacher, I am afraid these things happen. I can keep on eye on all my children but there are times when I do actually like to teach and give some attention to 1 child or a group of children. I take the view by 4 children should know how to behave with sissors ...so yes they have free acess...but I have told them not to cut anything but paper.

so whilst I am sorry your child's hair got cut off and I wuld upset too I can see how it happened.

agree with LGP, only as i cut my own hair at that age. i was at home behind the sofa with a stolen pair of scissors and after mutilating my sisters barbie, i started on my own ... probably due to boredom. it is understandable that you would be annoyed with the school, with good reason as the inccident seems to have been taken very lightly. she sounds really upset, so go and reassure her and give her a big hug. i bet the hairdressers will be able to give her a lovely bob or something similar

secretgardin perhaps she was bored, she is always saying she is bored at school so that would be a good explanation for it.

There could be all sorts of reasons that your daughter (assuming it was her) cut off her pigtail; maybe it's because it was annoying her, maybe it's because she had an opportunity to try out the scissors when she doesn't have free access to them at home or maybe she didn't realise that if she cut off her pigtail it would be permanent.

My very nearly 4-year-old hacked away at the hair by her right ear last year using her children's scissors. I was fuming especially as she'd just had her haircut by the hairdresser the week before and had been a lovely neat, 1920's style bob! She told me that there was a bit that was annoying her so she chopped it off . Unfortunately the 'annoying bit' wasn't the only bit to get the chop. Her scissors were taken away until her hair grew back! She was also made to hoover her bedroom floor which was covered with hair. She's 5 now and still talks about having her scissors confiscated so I doubt she'll repeat the self-hairdressing for a while.

It sounds like your daughter needs to have her hair cut into an ear-length bob and will have to live without cute pigtails for a while (maybe this was her way of getting rid of them?).

Personally I wouldn't be looking to blame the occasion on a lack of supervision by the teachers; we do the best we can whilst also encouraging the children to self-select the equipment they wish to use for a particular task and, to be honest, sharpish scissors are safer than blunt ones that mean children have to hack cardboard when it comes to junk modelling etc.

make sure you get some photos - will be something to sell to the papers when she's famous . In 10 years this will be really funny!

Children do the daftest things, her hair will grow back and she's unlikely to do it again. I would have a word with the teacher to ask about scissors etc to stop your worries but not make a big thing of it.

I'd imagine it would be very difficult for a 5 year old to snip off a thick pigtail. I don't think my 7 year old could do it without quite a bit of struggling and twisting around.

But I also agree with the poster who said that judging by her reaction it sounds like she did it herself. That's exactly what dd2 does when she's done something she doesn't want to admit to.

I think I'd try and forget it for the moment, and gently prise the truth out of her during the coming weeks.