Teen ordered to fix
controversial cut

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. - The celestial scene on Jay Cowell's head, "[is] for God and all the stuff he made on the earth." But Elizabeth City school officials didn't agree. The 8th grader at River Road Middle School was ordered to change his hair because the star shape is also a gang symbol.

"It was a really nice design and they're going to make me take it out of my head," says Cowell.

He was back at the barber Tuesday morning because school administrators said the star is a gang symbol. Barber Rondell Parker designed it with a very different meaning in mind.

"His mom told me he's an A/B student, so I thought of something that could be in the sky for him, reaching for the sky."

Sitting nearby, Jay's mom Natasha. The single mother says she was heartbroken when she spoke to the principal and superintendent.

"The only thing they kept saying is 'we know Jay,' so we know what this means, so we're not suspending him, but he can't return until it's gone."

10 On Your SIde found some five pointed and six pointed symbols affiliated with major gangs. We contacted the school district. Assistant Superintendent Linwood Williams said he didn't have time to talk on camera, but did say other students have been asked to remove similiar symbols.
Williams emailed us the portion of the student manual regarding gang related activities. In part it reads, "displaying, or selling any clothing, jewelry, emblems, badges, symbols, signs, body markings, or other items" is prohibited.

Natasha says Jay was also asked to remove red, black and green heritage beads in the past. She says her son should be judged as an individual, not by the behavior of others.

"If he wears a red shirt, I bought it for him. If he wears his heritage beads, his grandfather made them. A star? A star says it represents any other luminous or self luminous heavenly bodies seen as points of light in a night sky."

10 On Your Side was there when Jay returned to school Tuesday afternoon.

"Although the design is gone, it's not gone from inside his heart."

Williams told us he paid for Jay's haircut out of his pocket after Natasha expressed she couldn't afford it. Jay will have to return to the barber in a week once his hair grows back out.