UPDATED: 6th-grade girl alleges boys cut off her ‘ugly’ dreadlocks at Christian school where Karen Pence teaches

Update: It’s now being widely reported that Amari Allen lied when she accused her classmates of holding her down and cutting off her dreadlocks. CBS News reports that an investigation by the Fairfax County Police Department revealed that Amari acknowledged the accusations were not true.

Read the original story below:

SPRINGFIELD, VIRGINIA — Three sixth-grade boys reportedly pinned down a 12-year-old girl and cut off some of her dreadlocks, calling them “nappy” and “ugly,” a local CBS affiliate reports.

According to WUSA9, Amari Allen says she was attacked by the group of white male classmates while on the playground of Immanuel Christian School in Fairfax, Virginia. Vice President Mike Pence’s wife, Karen Pence, teaches art at the K-12 school.

“They kept laughing and calling me names,” Amari told WUSA as tears poured down her face. “They called me ‘ugly,’ said, ‘I shouldn’t have been born.’ They called me ‘an attention-seeker.'”

“They ran off laughing, and I was just sitting there,” she added.

https://twitter.com/MikeaTurnerTV/status/1177244517147336705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1177244517147336705&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fsixth-grade-boys-allegedly-attack-cut-girls-ugly-dreadlocks-at-immanuel-christian-school

Allen’s family didn’t find out what happened until two days after the incident when Amari’s grandmother noticed there was something different about her hair.

“It’s very painful,” Cynthia Allen said. “I want to see them dismissed from the school. I want to see something done.”

Amari says that the attack went on for four to five minutes and there wasn’t a teacher or school staff member in sight.

A statement released by Immanuel Christian School says the the incident is now under investigation.

“We take seriously the emotional and physical well-being of all our students, and have a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of bullying or abuse,” the statement read. “We are deeply disturbed by the allegations being made, and are in communication with the family of the alleged victim to gather information and provide whatever support we can. We have also reached out to law enforcement to ask them to conduct a thorough investigation, and further inquiries should be directed to the Fairfax County Police.”

According to Amari, the boys have harassed her repeatedly, taking food from her school lunches and calling her names.

Featured image via screen grab/NBC Washington 

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.