A New Jersey referee who forced a varsity wrestler to cut his dreadlocks during a match has been suspended for two years, CNN reported.
In December 2018, Burna Regional High School athlete Andrew Johnson was pressured into having his hair snipped in the middle of a wrestling match. If he refused, he would have had to forfeit.
Previously, 16-year-old Johnson had been allowed to wrestle with a hair covering, but Maloney refused to let him wear a cover over his dreads, insisting he must cut the locks or forfeit the match.
So he allowed for a pair of scissors to be taken to his hair. He would go on to win the match by sudden victory in overtime.
Many have accused the referee of racial discrimination, as Johnson identifies as mixed-race while Maloney is white.
"Poor baby won and looks defeated all at the same time," one Twitter user wrote. "This is so wrong."
Another chimed in, "Because he was forced to remove part of himself."
In an eight-part Twitter thread, Burroughs expressed his outrage at the incident, beginning by commending the teen for "stepping up, and being selfless, cutting his hair, and getting the final take down in over time to win his match and help his team secure the dual victory."
"The parents and coaches of the Buena wrestling team should have intervened," he wrote. "This young man should have been protected in this moment."
As he said, "I'm sure his hair was a strong part of his identity, and no single victory is worth succumbing to the pressure of unjust oppression and the unwarranted stripping of that identity."
The suspension was agreed upon between the Division of Civil Rights and the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athlete Association (NJSIAA).
"This is vindication," Johnson's attorney Dominic Speziali told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "This entire incident happened based on nothing he did wrong."
Now, NJSIAA executive director Larry White says hair-length rules have changed:
"We are confident that those changes, together with the training programs NJSIAA will be developing in collaboration with [the civil rights division] will ensure that a situation like this does not happen in the future."
h/t: CNN
