I wish someone would cut my kid's hair.

Um, she "didn't want any more hurt feelings"?

As a taxpayer, public school parent and fellow single mother, I'm appalled that she had the gall to sue, and pissed that our already-strained educational resources needed to get diverted to deal with this.

Hair grows back.

Gee, I guess it's a good thing she liked the teacher and thinks her kid is getting a good education? I suppose it would be politically incorrect to mention the spectacular costs that special education already add to the system.

What would the school district have done if the student had cut the teacher's hair?

Wow, let's see. Her autistic son was violated by his teacher, and she's supposed to settle for, "Oh, well, hair grows back"?

What a crock. I dare say if anyone who commented above found their child shorn against his or her will (and in this case the child probably couldn't give consent for anything) and without consulting you as a parent, you'd want to take some action, also.

It's amazing that people would condone, no matter how small, an unauthorized invasion of someone's bodily integrity. One can easily imagine the sliding scale of horrible acts upon which this offense sits. Do you ladies really not see that? Don't think of it as a "haircut," think of it as one person doing something unasked and unwarranted to another.

You're right, Jud. The board should have ruled to give the woman and son the entire public education budget, and closed the schools.

We are quibbling about amounts, right?

And this heinous offense certainly is worth every cost against the provision of special education to the child.

(I didn't think of it as a haircut, by the way. I thought of it as an overly adventurous teacher picking up after a mother's neglect ... neither one exactly a federal case.)

The article did not state that the haircut was against the child's will. As a parent, and a teacher who has worked with autistic children, I'm not sure it would be possible to give any child a haircut without some cooperation on the child's part. Particularly an autistic child.

I don't think we have the full story.

Still, this should not have happened.