BUENA, New Jersey (WPVI) -- The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights is now investigating after a high school wrestler was forced to cut his hair before a match.
The incident has sparked questions about why the teen was called out for his hair.
Many say the only reason why there was a call to cut the hair was because of the color of the wrestler's skin.
Buena Regional High School wrestler Andrew Johnson, a junior, had to have his hair cut or forfeit the match.
In video taken of the incident, you can see his locks getting chopped off by a trainer.
He would then go on to win his match.
The order to cut the locks came from referee Alan Maloney.
Back in 2016 Maloney reportedly called a fellow referee the N-word during an argument at a post-wrestling tournament get together.
We got mixed reactions when we spoke to several people, asking them to weigh in on the controversy.
Maylin Bauza, who goes to school with Johnson, and her mom say that Maloney went too far.
"His hair has always been like that, so for them to now bring it up is out of line," Bauza said.
Others argue Maloney was only sticking to the rules on hair.
"I just believe that the rules are the rules and that if his hair was below it should be, then he had to cut his hair. I don't think it was a racial issue," says Vineland resident Gina Fiocchi.
Well here's the rule. It states: "If an individual has hair longer than allowed it must be contained in a legal hair cover that is attached to the ear guards. The wrestler opting to wear a legal hair cover must wear it to the weigh-in procedure..."
It's reported Johnson had head gear, but not necessarily the exact one needed.
"I don't think it was right. I don't wanna put racists out there, but I don't think it was right," says Tekaya Potts of Buena Vista Township. "A person expresses themselves in different ways and everybody is different."
Now the state's governing body is investigating the incident, and they released a statement Friday afternoon, which reads:
"Regarding a situation concerning a Buena Regional High School (Buena, NJ) varsity wrestler and a wrestling referee, the NJSIAA has been in direct contact with school officials and is now awaiting official incident reports. A report also has been requested from the referee involved. In addition - and as per its formal sportsmanship policy - the NJSIAA has provided initial information to the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights and will continue to send updates as they become available.
"Regulations regarding hair length and legal hair covers for wrestlers are provided by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). At this point, the NJSIAA is working to determine the exact nature of the incident and whether an infraction occurred.
"Complaints against officials are heard first by the officials' association, and then can be appealed to the NJSIAA Controversies Committee. As a precautionary measure, given the degree of attention being focused on this matter, the NJSIAA will recommend to chapter officials that the referee in question not be assigned to any event until this matter has been reviewed more thoroughly in order to avoid potential distractions for the competing wrestlers."
So for the foreseeable future, Maloney will not be refereeing matches while the NJSIAA investigates.
#1: misterwhite To: All (#0)
A) The student -- who knew the rules for allowable hair length but ignored them.
B) The referee -- who is a racist for for enforcing the rules equally.
misterwhite posted on 2018-12-27 12:51:10 Reply Private Reply
#2: Vicomte13 To: misterwhite (#1)
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-12-27 13:41:38 Reply Private Reply
#3: misterwhite To: Vicomte13 (#2)
Or you can have long hair and not wrestle. Your choice -- you either play by their "arbitrary", "stupid", "senseless" or whatever rules or you don't play. Pretty straightforward.
How about if I want to play baseball but I want 4 strikes? Then I get all pissed off, call the plate umpire a racist, and try to get him fired when he calls me out with only 3.
OK with you?
misterwhite posted on 2018-12-27 14:49:15 Reply Private Reply
#4: Vicomte13 To: misterwhite (#3)
I know that for you it's a matter of enforcing rules because they are rules. For me, it's a matter of not putting rules in place that are not necessary, and not upholding petty unnecessary rules.
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-12-27 16:24:20 Reply Private Reply
#5: misterwhite To: Vicomte13 (#4)
Well, now you're just making shit up.
misterwhite posted on 2018-12-27 18:07:42 Reply Private Reply
#6: GrandIsland To: Vicomte13 (#2)
Hair length rules for wrestling dates back way before I WAS MADE TO CUT MY HAIR, be cleanly shaved and have clipped finger nails in the 80’s, when I wrestled on the VARSITY high school team at 177 and 215 pounds, 1980, 81, 82, 83 and 84.
It wasn’t racist then and it isn’t racist now. The only difference is the sheeple have been indoctrinated to think that rules and laws don’t belong to them... like Dicktard thinks.
Go fuck yourself, libtard.
GrandIsland posted on 2018-12-27 18:51:00 Reply Private Reply
#7: jeremiad To: misterwhite (#0)
jeremiad posted on 2018-12-27 18:52:18 Reply Private Reply
#8: Vicomte13 To: GrandIsland (#6)
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-12-27 19:26:10 Reply Private Reply
#9: CZ82 To: misterwhite, Vicomte13 (#1)
CZ82 posted on 2018-12-27 20:23:47 Reply Private Reply
#10: Vicomte13 To: CZ82 (#9)
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-12-27 20:45:02 Reply Private Reply
#11: GrandIsland To: CZ82 (#9)
GrandIsland posted on 2018-12-27 22:45:49 Reply Private Reply
#12: Pinguinite To: Vicomte13 (#2)
Long hair most certainly can interefere with wrestling. It's probably the sport that has more body contact than any other, not counting sex.
That is, at least, the high school wrestling from the 70's and 80's. Maybe the wrestling they do today is a more sissy type.
If the ref was a racist for making him cut is hair, then it certainly didn't show up in his work on the match, seeing how the guy with the skin color (whatever color that is or was) won.
Making a guy cut his hair would be a non issue back in the 50's - 70's.
Pinguinite posted on 2018-12-28 03:02:46 Reply Private Reply
#13: Vicomte13 To: Pinguinite (#12)
Rules that are directly related to the thing at hand - sure.
But rules that take a think at hand, and then are expanded past what they need to be, because of the social attitudes of the people setting the rules? Nope.
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-12-28 05:16:56 Reply Private Reply
#14: A K A Stone To: Vicomte13 (#13)
A K A Stone posted on 2018-12-28 08:37:20 Reply Private Reply
#15: misterwhite To: CZ82 (#9)
True. But insane people would get hurt then sue the school, the school district, the coach, the referee and the National Federation of State High School Associations for not putting safeguards in place.
Sorry. The days of personal responsibility are over.
misterwhite posted on 2018-12-28 09:11:30 Reply Private Reply
#16: CZ82 To: GrandIsland (#11)
You really need to change the brand of whiskey you use in your Chappaquiddicks, it's killing what few brain cells you have.
CZ82 posted on 2018-12-29 07:17:34 Reply Private Reply
#17: IbJensen To: misterwhite (#0)
IbJensen posted on 2019-01-02 17:06:55 Reply Private Reply
#18: misterwhite To: IbJensen (#17)
He may have thought the rules didn't apply to him because he was black and that if the rules were equally enforced he'd claim racism.
Which is what he did.
misterwhite posted on 2019-01-03 09:53:24 Reply Private Reply