School Rewards Teen For Shaving Head For Charity With An In-School Suspension
According to the Mirror, 14-year-old Stan Lock had lost friends and family members to cancer and wanted to do something proactive, so he started a fundraising page to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. On the page, he promised to shave his head in exchange for donations. He raised about 200 pounds, at which point he clipped his thick, brown hair to the “number one” length on a pair of hair clippers.
“I decided to shave my head because cancer is horrible and people I know have been affected by it, so I decided to do something to help,” he said. “I thought I would shave my head because that is associated with cancer treatment, it is quiet a dramatic thing to do, therefore I thought people would donate.”
His hair is now very short, and apparently that does not sit well with the head teacher, who says the short hair counts as an “extreme” style that violates the school’s dress code and responded by putting him “in isolation,” which sounds a lot like solitary confinement on Orange is the New Black.
“Isolation” means he spends all day studying in a tiny, isolated booth. He can’t go to class or leave the booth, even for lunch and scheduled break times. According to the Mirror, Lock has been put in there until his hair grows out to the length of a “number two” on a pair of clippers, which could take weeks at a normal rate of hair growth.
His mother said she’s proud of him, and she should be. She said she’s tried to talk to the head teacher about the punishment, but he’s refusing to offer clemency on the grounds that, “he says if he lets one student off with it the other 1,400 might follow.”
Hell, if 1,400 students each raised 200 pounds for cancer, that would be worth a bunch of buzz cuts running around the school.
Since Stan’s story made the news, though, his fundraiser has raised nearly 5,000 pounds and counting. He said it is terrible in isolation and the days feel like weeks, but hopefully the outpouring of public support and the success of his fundraiser will help take the edge off a bit.