A six-year-old girl was barred from playing in a soccer game at Hope Mills Parks and Recreation in North Carolina because she wore colorful clips and bows in her hair.
ABC 11 reported that Darialle Marshmon, the child’s mom said that she and her husband went to the game and discovered that their daughter was not allowed to play after an official mentioned the girl’s hair as the reason.
“I want a formal apology to my family and to my daughter,” the upset mom said. “She went off the field, crying, confused, six years old: ‘I don’t understand what’s wrong with my hair! I’ve been wearing my hair this way forever.’ Other children, boys and girls had — they had beads on, and they were playing in their game.”
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The little girl’s dad stood up for her when the official told her she couldn’t play.
“And my husband even asked them, ‘what needs to be removed so that she can play?’ He was like, ‘and how about this, we’ll take it as a warning about her hair, let her play the game next game, we’ll know what to do.’ Nobody even offered a solution for her to play in her game,” Marshmon added.
The adamant father then pressed the official to elaborate on the specifics of hair rules during youth soccer games.
“So one of the other volunteers, I’m not sure her name, she comes back with a piece of paper with the rules and regulations on it. It said no jewelry, watches, rings, necklace, hair beads, hair wear of any type can be worn during the game. My husband explained to them. This is not beads or headwear. These are ponytail holders and clips. This is what holds her hair together. If they removed it, her hair is going to be all over her head,” Darialle’s mom explained.
Marshmom noted that after reviewing the rules provided to her family regarding hair during games, the clips her daughter sported weren’t banned.
A parks and recreations spokesperson responded to this and said, regardless of it not being explicitly mentioned, decorations must be “soft material.” Despite the fact they did incorporate an apology to the family for how it was dealt with and plan to explain the rules better from now on.
