A teacher and her student are sporting matching hairdos for the most touching reason.
Shannon Grimm cut her hair last month after her kindergarten student, Prisilla Perez, was apparently being teased by classmates for her new haircut. Prisilla often wore a hat to cover her new look, Grimm told "Good Morning America" Friday.
"[Prisilla] started to feel a little bit more self conscious when our friends were very curious as to why she wore her hat all the time," said Grimm, a teacher at Meador Elementary School in Willis, Texas. "They started saying she looked like a boy and had boy hair."
Grimm, a mom of three, said she wanted to turn Prisilla tears into a teachable moment for the entire class.
One day she arrived at school with a new haircut that matched Prisilla's.
"They asked a lot of questions as 5 year olds will," Grimm said. "Some of them were like, 'I love it, it looks so pretty.' [Others said], 'You look like a boy' and I said, 'No I look beautiful. Don't I look beautiful?'"
She went on, "I told Prisilla that I did it for her and I wanted to show her that it didn't matter if you had longer hair or shorter hair. It matters what's inside and that she's a caring, silly girl."
Grimm said she noticed a change in the way the kids responded to her and Prisilla's matching haircuts. Grimm even bought Priscilla and herself matching hair bows.
In Priscilla's eyes this is everything to her. And to my students, who learned such a valuable lesson of looking on the inside of someone.
On Feb. 11, Grimm nominated Prisilla for student of the month on account of her strength and courage to continue coming to school despite being sad. Prisilla then presented Grimm with a medal for being her hero.
"I would definitely do it again," Grimm said. "In Prisilla's eyes this is everything to her. And to my students, who learned such a valuable lesson of looking on the inside of someone."
