Alopecia Sufferer, 8, Expelled From School After Undergoing Successful Hair Treatments

An 8-year-old boy who suffers from a condition that causes him to lose hair was kicked out of his elementary school for breaking one of its rules–having too much hair on his head, Fox 29 reports.

Zion Williams underwent successful treatments for alopecia, a auto immune disease that causes patches of hair loss on the head, and has since been able to grow his hair back. The second-grader, who attends Philadelphia’s Shiloh Christian Academy, had to endure painful injections to his scalp in order to stimulate hair growth.

Alopecia affects one in fifty Americans.

According to the boy’s mom, Talia Mann, the shots worked for her son and the missing patches of hair grew back. As far as administrators at the academy are concerned, though, Zion’s treatments were too successful and now his hair growth exceeds what they allow.

The school has a rule in place that bans long hair. Even though Zion presented school officials with a doctor’s note explaining his condition, hair growth and requesting that his situation be exempted from the strictly enforced rule, he was still ousted from the Academy last Wednesday and forced to stay home.

Talia told Fox 29, “I think it’s heartless. It’s heartless that they would actually take him out of school because of something so simple as a haircut.”

After the distraught mom appeared on camera, the school was contacted by Fox 29. The Academy’s principal, Bishop Derrick Williams, at first declined an on-camera interview.  When Fox 29 contacted the school via phone, Bishop Williams then acquiesced and allowed Zion to return to school on Tuesday.

He’ll be able to keep his hair, too.