Principal Gives Insecure 8th Grade Student a Haircut to Get Him Back to Class

Once again, faith in humanity has been restored to 100% with the story of an Indianapolis principal who led with his heart and helped an insecure 8th-grader through what would have been a tough day.

On Thursday, February 18, an 8th-grade student at the Stonybrook Intermediate and Middle School in Warren Township was reported to the school principal after he vehemently refused to take off his hat and go to class.

Jason Smith, the principal, approached the situation in the most admirable of ways. The older man sat the student down and had a calm conversation with the kid. The young boy soon opened up about his unusual attachment to his hat and his hesitation to go to class.

The kid told the principal that he had just gotten a haircut and disliked the way it looked. He thought it made his hairline look a little funny and, as such, did not want to be seen with it.

Rather than scold the student and force him to go back to class or call his parents and have him sent home, Smith offered to help, per a now-viral Facebook post by Lewis Speaks Sr.

The principal offered to cut the boy's hair if he agreed to go back to class. Delighted by the kind offer, the boy agreed, and after Smith got him all cleaned up, he happily ditched the hat, apologized for his behavior, and returned to class.

In an interview to highlight the small but incredible act of kindness, Smith revealed that he has a lot of experience cutting hair. He added that he not only cut his teammates’ hair before games while playing College basketball, but he also cuts his 17-year-old son's hair.

The kind-hearted principal noted the significance of the haircut to a young black boy to whom appearance and acceptance matter. He said this was one of his ways of creating the perfect learning environment for his students.

In Illinois, another wondrous moment occurred when a high school student, Chase Eller, saved a choking baby at a restaurant. Eller, a sophomore at Sullivan High School, was having a meal at El Rodeo restaurant when he suddenly heard a baby coughing.

He jumped to action to save the choking baby with techniques he learned in a semester-long health class taught by teacher Scott Bales. He turned the baby upside down and successfully dislodged the choking objects.

Another heartwarming story from Iowa came in the form of a kindhearted University of Iowa professor who went out of his way to make Thanksgiving lovely for his students.

Last November, Dr. Elizabeth Pearce realized how heartbreaking it must have been for her students who had to spend Thanksgiving away from their families due to the pandemic.

One of her students tweeted that Pearce sent her class an email telling them that she would make extra portions of her Thanksgiving dinner and drop it off for them if they needed a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal this year.

Pearce told Good Morning America that she thought the small gesture was so largely celebrated because it served as a little ray of sunshine in such a dark time.

While locals in Indianapolis, Sullivan, Illinois, and Iowa celebrate the actions of Smith, Eller, and Pearce, it brings to mind the 2019 story of a couple in Houston, Texas, that sued their child's school for allegedly coloring in his hair design.

CNN reported that 13-year-old Juelz Trice got a fade haircut and was taken to the school administrators who then gave him two options: color in the fade with a black Sharpie or go to in-school suspension. The boy chose the former.

The suit alleged that the administrators laughed as they took many minutes to color the 13-year-old's scalp. This only shows that many still need to learn the importance of kindness, especially with kids, to make the world a better place.