This is Brooke Beatty. She’s 15 years old and goes to high school in the Brisbane suburb of Corinda. Recently, Brooke wanted to do a good thing and so, she decided to take part in Shave for a Cure – an initiative in which people raise money for leukaemia research by shaving their heads.
Brooke raised $600 for the cause. But when she turned up at school this week with her ‘Blade I’ haircut, she was told that she was breaking the school’s appearance rules and that she would have to cover up her bald head if she wanted to attend class.
Speaking to Channel Seven, Brooke – who doesn’t know anyone who has suffered from leukaemia but simply felt passionately about the cause – said she was surprised by her school’s reaction.
“There are no extreme haircuts allowed so it has examples like mohawks undercuts, etc,” Brooke said. “So I would never call shaving your head for a cure an extreme haircut.”
Education Queensland maintains that no students from the high school in question have been disciplined for participating in Shave for a Cure. But Brooke’s testimony tells a different story and it seems that Brooke is not alone.
In a similar story out of the US state of Colorado this week, a nine-year-old girl who shaved her head also got kicked out of school on the basis that her haircut violated the school’s dress standards.
Kamryn Renfro wanted to shave her head to show support for her 11-year-old friend Delaney Clements, who recently lost her hair because of chemotherapy treatment.