When Tori Nelson arrived at Winlock Miller Elementary School in Washington state, where she works as a fourth-grade teacher, she noticed a lone student sitting crying outside her classroom earlier this week.

Matthew Finney, a shy boy in her homeroom, had his coat on and his head down, covered in a winter hat. “I could see the back of his neck had been shaved, and since Matthew usually has very thick brown curly hair, I realized that he’d had a haircut over the weekend,”

“I asked him what was wrong, and he said he’d gotten a buzz cut for the summer. But this morning, a fifth grader on the bus made fun of him, and he didn’t want to come to class and get teased by other kids.”

Nelson tried to convince Matthew to come inside. School rules prohibit kids from wearing hats indoors, so she told him that if he didn’t take it off, he could get sent home. That didn’t work

“Finally I said, ‘if you take off your hat off and come to class, I’ll let you give me a buzz cut too,”