5-year-old boy, Ethan Clos, banned from Ohio school over 'distracting' mohawk

A 5-year-old boy was suspended from Reid Primary and Middle School in Springfield, Ohio, after he showed up to school with a mohawk.

WHIO-TV reports that Keshia Castle was told on Wednesday her son Ethan Clos cannot go back to school until he no longer has a mohawk. According to Superintendent Gregg Morris, the kid's spiky hairdo was distracting his classmates.

“Our policy clearly states that any dress or grooming which is disruptive or distracting to the educational process is not acceptable. In this particular case, the student’s hairstyle did provide disruption to the classroom,” Morris said.

Ethan's mother said her son thought he looked "cool" after getting the haircut during spring break and that he received a lot of attention from his classmates once they saw it.

“They seen his hair like it was. All the little kids were going over and feeling on it and everything,” Castle said.

The boy's grandmother, Joyce Wells, said the suspension was too harsh a penalty for a hairstyle, especially one in which the hair is cut so close to the scalp that there is barely a difference from a regular style.

"I could understand if it was colored, and if it stood up off longer of his head," his grandmother said. "But I don't see nothing wrong with this."

Castle told WHIO-TV, Ethan would return to class Monday after she shaves his head, adding that the style shouldn't have been such a big deal.

"He's a 5-year-old little boy who chose to wear his hair a certain way," she said.