Renee Szablewski’s father died of lung cancer when her son Jack was just 16 months old. She wanted to to do something to honor her father, and to help her son honor the grandfather he will barely remember when he gets older. Szablewski decided to let Jack grow his hair out so that he could donate his beautiful blonde locks to the charity, Locks of Love, which makes wigs for cancer patients. The plan was going well until last month, when the principal of Jack’s school, St. Dominic in Brick, N.J., decided to bar Jack from his pre-kindergarten class because his hair was too long.
“That’s Christian? That’s Catholic?” Szablewski fumed during a telephone interview with TODAYshow.com Monday.
Szablewski maintains that she informed the school about Jack’s Lock’s of Love project when she enrolled him in pre-K and they were fine with it. “I said, ‘Listen, this is what we were doing,’ ” Szablewski told TODAYshow.com. “They were like, ‘Oh, that’s OK, as long as his hair is cut before kindergarten.’ ”
Jack doesn’t start kindergarten until 2011, but when the school informed Szablewski that she had until October 1 to comply with new updates to its handbook that included pre-k students in rules that state that boys hair must be short and neat. Szablewski had arranged for Jack’s hair to be cut on September 30th, and had even arranged for local media to cover it, but storms prevented the cut from happening.
When Jack and his mom showed up for school on the first of October, they were turned away. “The teacher wouldn’t let him through the doors and left us standing out in the rain,” Szablewski said. “He didn’t do anything wrong, and he’s the victim here.”
The entire incident has colored Szablewski’s relationship with her church:
“I love my church, but this isn’t about the church. It’s about the authority and power and power abuse,” she said. “I honestly think that my son has been totally branded by the Diocese of Trenton. I don’t think I’ll be able to get him into any Catholic school.”
Jack’s hair will be cut in the coming weeks and donated, as was always intended, to children with cancer who need it. Hopefully, he will also find a place to go to school where his devotion to a good cause will be appreciated.
