Utah middle school student Rylee MacKay has been dying her hair the same shade of red since September. However, her most recent dye-job has put the 15-year-old at odds with school officials, who claim her unnatural hair color is "too distracting," according to the Spectrum.
After speaking to Hurricane Middle School's vice principal Wednesday, MacKay was sent home from school and told not to return until she dyed her hair to meet school district policy. Such regulations require that student hair color "be within the spectrum of color that grows naturally," according to the report.
Though MacKay dyed her hair on Feb. 2, the issue of her hair color was not broached until the vice principal, Jan Goodwin, saw the 15-year-old's hair in sunlight, noting that it appeared purple and pink.
MacKay was not immediately suspended, but school officials warned her that she would be if she did not change her hair color to fit school policy by Monday, KSL reports.
MacKay's mother, Amy, is hoping they can come to a compromise with the school, so her daughter can keep her red hair color.
"I absolutely am not going to dye it brown. That is not an option," the mother told KSL. "My daughter feels beautiful with the red hair. Changing her hair really changed her; she really blossomed."
Another middle school student, 12-year-old Michael Jestes of Florida, was suspended in October after he dyed his hair pink in support of breast cancer awareness, Fox 13 reported at the time.
Though Jestes' mother acquiesced with the principal's demand to dye her son's hair black, the young boy was threatened with another suspension after the principal noticed the pink hair showing through beneath the black dye.