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Student sent home for hair color deemed ‘too distracting’

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HURRICANE, Utah -- A southern Utah teenager was told she cannot return to school until she changes her hair color, which school officials called “too distracting.”

Rylee Mackay, 15, said the Hurricane Middle School vice principal told her on Wednesday that her hair looked pink and purple in the sunlight, and she wouldn’t be allowed back at school until she dyed her hair.

"I knew it was about my hair because I had already been talked to once before a couple of months ago about it. So, I went back in and they told me that I needed to have it fixed by tomorrow because it was too purple," said Rylee. "Fixed by tomorrow, or I couldn't come back to school."

The school district’s policy requires student’s hair to be a shade that grows naturally, but Rylee’s mother said her daughter has been dying her hair the same color of red since September of last year.

On Monday, the Washington County School superintendent over secondary schools said Rylee was reinstated after she washed out her hair.