Teen who grew hair for charity back in school after cut
Published: January 7, 2005
A South Texas teenager will be able to return to his high school after donating his long locks to a Florida-based organization that makes hairpieces for children who have lost their hair.
On Monday, Gerardo Garcia Jr., a junior, had 10 inches of hair cut off and sent to Florida-based Locks of Love.
Garcia had spent his fall semester at an alternative campus because his long hair didn’t comply with the district’s dress code.
“It felt good to do what I have been wanting to since last year,” Garcia said in Tuesday’s edition of the Valley Morning Star. “I got a sense of well being.”
Locks of Love uses donated ponytails to create custom-fitted hairpieces of children suffering from medical hair loss due to cancer treatments, follicle disorders or severe burns.
Garcia said he was motivated to grow and donate his hair by a family history of cancer. His great-grandmother died from lymphoma, his grandmother had breast cancer and his 11-year-old brother had a lymph node removed in 2003 and may have to undergo a biopsy.
Instead of attending Harlingen High School South in the fall, Garcia attended the school district’s alternative campus Keeping Education Your Success (K.E.Y.S.) Academy. He had tried for almost a month to convince the school administration and the school board in September to make an exception from the dress code because his long hair was for a good cause.
The school policy forbids boys from having hair that covers their eyes or hangs below their shoulders.
During his battle, the board offered Garcia the post of American Cancer Society liaison along with a $500 donation to the group in his name. The $500 came from an anonymous donor in the amount that the hair would be worth.
On Wednesday, Garcia will return to his regular high school, now that his hair complies with the school district’s dress code.
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