Teacher Reprimands Child with Progeria for Wearing Bright Pink Wig
A child suffering from a rare genetic disease called Hutchinson Gilford Progeria that accelerates aging was discouraged from going to school owing to her pink wig. The rare disease makes a child look like an 80-year-old, and Ashanti Smith had suffered hair loss or Alopecia, which made her wear a pink wig, donated by friends and relatives as her family could not afford a human hair wig. However, her teacher at the Oakmeeds Community College asked her to take it down as it was not too cold, and the wig was too bright, and other children might want to wear similar things. However, Ashanti’s mother Phoebe, said that she had only a few more years to live and thus should have been allowed whatever color she liked. Few teachers at the school office had also complimented her on the wig when they first saw her. The entire episode has left the 11-year-old devastated, and she has refused to take her wig back.