A Texas high school senior who grew his hair long to commemorate his victory over cancer is now being told by callous school officials to cut it off, even though he sees his long locks as “his badge of survival.”
At the end of his freshman year, Trent Sampson was diagnosed with cancer and subsequently lost all of his hair after undergoing intensive chemotherapy treatment.
Once she beat the disease, Sampson decided to grow her hair to celebrate her miraculous survival.
The young high school student hasn’t been able to cut it since.
A Texas high school senior who grew his hair to commemorate his victory over cancer is now being told by insensitive school officials to cut it off.
At the end of his freshman year, Trent Sampson was diagnosed with cancer and subsequently lost all of his hair after undergoing intensive chemotherapy treatment.
“When he started growing back, it was like a badge of survival,” said Jodie Sampson, Trent’s mother. KXII.
But the Valley View Independent School District is cracking down on its students and enforcing its new dress code, which prohibits male students from having long hair.
The young cancer survivor now has to make a big decision: cut his hair or leave the school district he calls home.
In sharing Trent’s heroic recovery with school officials, the teen and his family tried to ask district officials to make an exception. They asked for a compromise.
But the district refused to budge and instead kept the dress code changes that went into effect in July.
Valley View Independent School District is cracking down on its students and enforcing its new dress code policy, which prohibits male students from having long hair.
“We tried to talk to the principal and the superintendent and say, ‘Can we just put it in a bun or a ponytail?'” Trent’s mother said.
“They told us no,” he continued.
In July, Trent’s family received an email from Superintendent Jason Womack, who stood firm on the dress code issue.
She wrote: “The intent of the updated dress code is to support a conservative and modest learning environment.”
But the school wasn’t always so strict with the rules. Deanna Vickery, who has children and grandchildren who went through the school district, said:
‘My children were allowed to have long hair when they were in school, but now he can’t?’
Trent has said he won’t cut his hair, no matter the cost.
“My hair is curly at the ends and I like that a lot and I don’t want to lose it,” she said. KXII.
He added: “It’s because of the chemotherapy and it will never grow back.”
Trent has said he won’t cut his hair, no matter what it takes
The cancer survivor will likely receive support from other students at school in his or her resistance against the administration.
“Trent is a very social person, everyone at that school would fight for him, and that’s what we’re doing,” said fellow senior Jarethy Vickery, who also has long hair.
Vickery added that she would not cut her hair with scissors either.
“I see it’s going to end with a change in the dress code, and if it doesn’t work out that way, damn it, I guess I’ll be spending my senior year in the ISS or the OSS or wherever they decide to put me.”