Shaved eyebrows raise 2nd-grade dispute

GRANTS, N.M. (KRQE) - While a Grants mother said her daughter blames another second grader for shaving her eyebrows, school officials claim there are too many stories to sort out what actually happened on the playground.

Mesa View Elementary School started an investigation last Thursday after Ophelia Pino complained to the principal. Her 7-year-old daughter had come home the day before with her eyebrows shaved to the point that one was almost gone.

Pino said she took a picture of her daughter immediately after she found out what happened.

On Wednesday Pino told KRQE News 13 it’s now been a week since the incident. Her daughter suffers emotionally, Pino said, and the school is not moving fast enough.

“It's like traumatizing for a little second grader to have to go to school with no eyebrows and get picked on,” Pino said.

Pino said her daughter, Naveya, told her it happened on the school playground and named the other second grader as being responsible.

Pino said it’s not the first time her daughter has had a run in with this student.

“This year when I enrolled her I specially requested that they not be in the same class,” Pino said.

She claims this time the other girl threatened to make something up about her daughter to get her in trouble.

Pino documented what her daughter said and read it to News 13.

“'She told me she was going to shave my eyebrows, and if she didn't let me she was going to tell Mr. O’Connell on me,'” Pino said.

The school said no teachers saw it happen, and nobody from the school knew about it until Pino marched into the principal's office on Thursday.

Superintendent Kilino Marquez said the second grader admitted to shaving Naveya's eyebrows, but right now he said the school is dealing with two different stories as to why she did it.

“What she said was the young lady wanted her eyebrows trimmed like the high school kids,” Marquez said.

Marquez said the girl who did the shaving claimed Naveya brought in the clippers, not a razor, and she wanted her to do it.

“Other than visiting with witnesses and trying to get people to be honest with the principal it will probably be the only way they're going to find the facts,” Marquez said.

The school suspended the second grader for one day.

Pino doesn't think that's enough because her daughter's skin will be irritated for several weeks.

Pino met with school officials again Wednesday afternoon. She said she plans to talk to the school board next.