Lamya Cammon is a 7 year old first grade student who had her hair cut by her own teacher out of anger said to be stemmed from the stress of budget cuts. Image courtesy of Essence.com (click for video)

Many of you have seen the video, but how many of you are speaking out against it?  I've found that people take silence to mean indifference.  There is nothing wrong with stating your indifference about something, especially when it can help someone else.

Below is my short letter to the Milwaukee Public Schools (and thank you to "Black Girl With Long Hair," Tia Shauntee, and even Essence.com for talking about it):

To: 116@mail.milwaukee.k12.wi.us

Subject: "Justice for Lamya Cammon"

Dear Superintendent William G. Andrekopoulos,

I was not happy at all to hear about the incident involving Lamya Cammon nor was I satisfied about the solution that was offered--to fine the teacher and allow her to continue teaching her class.  Lamya should not have had to leave her own class, but rather the teacher should have been taken out of that class and either given a psychological evaluation to determine if she is fit to teach, placed in another class where she will be dealing with much older students who aren't 7 year olds, or fired.  Clearly, she is unfit to teach young children if she doesn't know how to properly deal with a 7 year old child playing with her hair, let alone teach at all.  There are much more deserving teachers who would love her job.

My primary concern is how a teacher can come to violating a child by  cutting her hair off in front of her classmates.  It baffles me what kind of mind this teacher has to go to such lengths as to think of picking up a scissors and cutting off her students hair--out of frustration? If you claim that it is "stress" that induced such behavior, God forbid what if the teacher had a knife or a gun in her purse? Or is this too hard to believe? If you asked me, I find this incident hard to believe--but it happened none the less. As a teacher, I am sure there had to be some kind of training on how to deal with stress. Even at the most basic level of dealing with stress, you never put your hands on someone. We also know that you never direct your anger at someone who has nothing to do with your personal issues (in this case, a reduced budget?). Lamya definitely was not the cause of this teacher's stress but instead a victim of it. Clearly, Lamya was obedient enough to come to her teacher when called for her punishment and was also obedient in that she stood still while the teacher took her scissors to cut off her lock of hair.  So to say that Lamya pushed this teacher over the edge is not only false but covering up a much larger issue with this teacher--whose name we still don't know--and even the lack of quality in personnel working at Congress Elementary School.  When will enough be enough?

You are setting a terrible example for the rest of these kids.  As far as Lamya's classmates are concerned, the students in this classroom will go on to believe that Lamya was the "problem" and the teacher was justified in what she did.  The students laughed at her when this happened--is this what we're supposed to do when someone is being wrongfully violated?  Is that what you want to teach these children? Lamya went back to her chair and wept--she didn't attack the teacher, she didn't shout at her laughing classmates, she sat and cried. Is this what your school district is teaching our next generation? That they are unworthy of proper fair treatment?

I will be following this story to see that something more meaningful is done.  I will not only like a response to this letter but also the name of the teacher and the address for Lamya Cammon's family so that I can mail Lamya a gift for Christmas to let her know just how special she is.

Thank you,

Bessie Kaine

I encourage everyone to write your own letter of disapproval because I know that I would never want this to happen to my own child.   I hope this encourages you to also speak out against Lamya's treatment.