Texas school photoshops homecoming queen’s purple hair color

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

A Texas school district has apologized after altering the hair color of their homecoming queen.

Ebony Smith was crowned the homecoming queen of North Shore Senior High School, but when the Galena Park Independent School District issued a press release with a photo of the homecoming queen and king, Smith’s hair color had been altered from purple to brown.

“It’s embarrassing,” Smith told local TV station KHOU. “It wasn’t even Photoshopped correctly. You can still see purple outlining. It’s just very embarrassing.”

The school itself had posted a picture of Smith and homecoming king Kasson Abdullah with Smith’s hair color as it was that night: a deep purple that is banned under the school’s dress code.

Although Smith agreed to dye her hair after homecoming, her mother, Tameasha Watkins, contacted the school upset by the change.

“You changed her to make her look like someone else,” Watkins said. “Keep her as who she is. That’s who the students voted in.”

Galena Park ISD has since swapped the picture of a black and white one and issued a statement apologizing for the doctored picture: “The error was immediately corrected, and our district sincerely apologizes to the student affected and her parents. Our intent has been, and will continue to be, to acknowledge and spotlight the accomplishments of our students, and we do regret this mistake.”