RACINE — A Racine barbershop is stepping in to give kids free haircuts at school after the assistant principal at Mitchell Elementary School had an idea.
"We have a policy in the district where they can wear hoodies, but they're not supposed to put the hood itself up. And so one of the things I noticed after talking to kids on a regular basis was it wasn't that they were trying to be defiant or anything like that it was my hair is messed up and so I decided I had to figure out a way that we could fix that," said Steve Branson.
School leader Jamario Farr put out a Facebook post asking if anyone could help their kids with free haircuts. Within minutes barbers from Clarity Cuts responded.
"What better way to be an impact than to come in and help the young people out," said Nino Nunn.
Every other week the barbers transform the principal's office into a barbershop for a couple of hours.
"If you don't have the confidence that you need you won't step outside of your comfort zone," said Nunn.
The owner of the shop hopes the kids walk out with more than they sat down with.
"If you look good you'll go out there and you'll perform well," said Nunn.
This gesture is personal for barber Cam Powell. He went to school at Mitchell.
"I like the fact that I can give back and, you know, talk to the kids," said Powell.
Students admit when their hair doesn't look good it's embarrassing and that's why they appreciate the time in the chair.
"We can get a different behavior or attitude out of our students when we know they're coming in and they feel confident with the way they look," said Branson.
The next step is putting a program in place so girls can also get free haircuts at school.
