Hayleigh Black is pictured in this undated handout photo taken during her 9th grade at Muscle Shoals High School in Muscle Shoals
Hayleigh Black is pictured in this undated handout photo taken during her 9th grade at Muscle Shoals High School in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, courtesy of her mother Kim Boyd. The Alabama teenager with dyed-red hair was sent home from school by her principal over concerns that her mane was too bright and distracting, the girl's mother said on August 15, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Boyd/Handout via R

A U.S. teenager was sent home by her school principal after she had gone to school with dyed red hair. The primary concern for the principal was that the hair might be too distracting for other students of the school.

Muscle Shoals High School student 15-year-old Hayleigh Black has been a redhead for the last three years. However, the principal of her Alabama school called her to his office only in the previous week to tell her that her hair-colour was "too bright." Interestingly, Black has even participated in the school marching band with her red hair in the past. She was, nevertheless, sent home on the first day she went back to school after the summer break.

According to Black's mother, Kim Boyd, she had to go back to her daughter's school right after she had dropped her at school only half an hour before. Boyd said that there had been no complaint from the school in the previous year. She said that she had never received any phone call regarding the issue. Nor was her daughter sent home until the principal decided to remind Black of the rules out of the blue.

The flute-player at the school marching band was in tears as she was asked to go home. "Her lips started quivering and her eyes started watering," her mother said. "I'm broken-hearted for my child that had her feet kicked out from under her on first day of school."

The school dress code apparently prohibits students from flaunting hair "which has been dyed a bright or distractive color." According to Superintendent Brian Lindsey, Black was one of the four students who were sent home for violating the dress code. Two other students who were sent home had orange and pink hair respectively.

The school apparently allows only natural hair colour. Black was allowed to get back to school only if she removed the hair-dye. The teenager did not want to take a chance with her classes. So, she changed her hair colour to a "less distracting" one and got back to school.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au