A Chicago-based photographer drove to Michigan to treat an eight-year-old girl to a professional photoshoot after she was “devastated” at being turned away from her school’s picture day for having red hair extensions that violated school policy.
The incident happened to Marian Scott, a third-grader at Paragon Charter Academy in Michigan, back in October. Scott’s father, Doug, expressed his upset, claiming the school’s actions were “uncalled for” and that the institution “didn’t even call us.” Speaking to WILX-TV, he said:
Marian didn’t leave the house, go down the street and go get this done on her own. She’s eight years old. We did this ourselves in our own home, and there’s just no way that I felt like this would happen. If they at least would have reached out to us and said: ‘Hey, come get her, she’s got a hair issue, we need you to change it, that’s not allowed, I could show you in the handbook,’ they didn’t even go to those extents. They let her stay in school… so if she’s not a disruption to the class, then why is she a disruption to the picture?
The school’s policy is that hair color must be natural, something they say was reiterated in the lead-up to picture day, but Scott claims he didn’t receive the memo.
That’s when photographer Jermaine Horton reached out, offering Scott a photoshoot of her own. He says his motivation was imagining “what this would do to such a beautiful little girl.”
The clothes for the shoot were even donated by designers. Horton says he asked Scott to “let her emotions out,” and these are the resulting images.
He added:
I’m so blessed to have been a part of this to give her an amazing day that showed her that she truly is beautiful and her hair color was the BOMB! Of course, we kept it for the shoot!
Lead image: Jermaine Horton.