12-Year Old Girl Attacked by Classmates Who Cut Her Locks Calling Them “Ugly” and “Nappy”

Fairfax, VA — Amari Allen, a 12-year old Black girl from Virginia, said her three white male classmates attacked her on the playground at their school, and then pinned her down and cut her locks while calling her hair “ugly” and “nappy.”

Amari said she’s still in trauma after the incident on Monday earlier this week wherein three boys assaulted her. She detailed that one boy covered her mouth while a second boy locked her hands behind her back and a third boy went on to cut her medium-length locks.

“They kept laughing and calling me names,” Amari tearfully told WUSA9. “They called me ‘ugly,’ said, ‘I shouldn’t have been born.’ They called me ‘an attention-seeker.’ They ran off laughing, and I was just sitting there.”

Amari wanted to keep what happened as a secret until two days after the incident, her grandmother, Cynthia Allen, noticed that her hair looked different. At first, Amari tried to deny that anyone cut it due to fear of retaliation. But when her grandmother continued asking questions, she broke down crying and told them the truth.

“It’s very painful,” Cynthia Allen said. “I want to see them dismissed from the school. I want to see something done.”

The incident happened during recess on the playground of the Immanuel Christian School, a private K-12 school where Amari’s family pays nearly $12,000 a year for her to attend. It was not clear where the teachers were during the incident, which Amari said lasted for about 5 minutes.

Amari added that it was not the first time the same three boys bullied her. She said they used to take her school lunches and call her names for some time now.

Meanwhile, the school, which outlines a strict no-bullying policy in their handbook, said in a statement that they are talking with Amari’s family. It has yet been know what consequences, if any, would be given to Amari’s alleged attackers.

“We take seriously the emotional and physical well-being of all our students, and have a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of bullying or abuse. We are deeply disturbed by the allegations being made, and are in communication with the family of the alleged victim to gather information and provide whatever support we can. We have also reached out to law enforcement to ask them to conduct a thorough investigation, and further inquiries should be directed to the Fairfax County Police.”