Last Updated: 7:25 AM, October 31, 2010

Posted: 1:13 AM, October 31, 2010

 

He's a hair-etic.

That's the harsh ruling of a strict New Jersey Catholic school that booted a 4-year-old be cause his hair was too long -- even though his angelic locks were to be donated to kids with cancer.

Little Jack Szablewski, who has never had a hair cut, needed to grow his straight blond tresses at least 12 inches before he could donate them to the Childhood Leuke mia Foundation in memory of his grand dad and a child of a family friend who died of the cancer.

But now his saddened mom, Renee, 47, says she's lost faith in St. Dominic's, of Brick, NJ, and the school principal who barred her son from attending his part-time prekindergarten class for failing to meet the dress code.

UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL: Four-year-old Jack Szablewski has been expelled from St. Dominic's Catholic school in Brick, NJ, for growing his hair to donate to cancer-stricken kids.

Szablewski said the paro chial school admitted Jack in 2009 knowing he was growing his hair for a cause but then revised its dress code in September to re quire that all students have short hair -- no exceptions.

"They gave us two weeks to get his hair cut or he was going to be suspended. I immediately put his hair in a ponytail and measured it; it was exactly 12 inches with no room to spare, which is the minimum required to donate," she said.

Frantic, Szablewski set up a Sept. 30 appointment at Ferrazz Salon in Hoboken and invited the press as a way to highlight the family's causes, including getting involved in bone-marrow drives.

But a severe storm was battering the East Coast, and the family was forced to cancel over safety concerns. When Szablewski took Jack back to school on Oct. 1, she was turned away in the rain and told not to come back until he was shorn.

"I feel we are being punished for teaching our son it is better to give than to receive," Szablewski said.

Not only that but the Diocese of Trenton has agreed with school Principal Carol Bathmann that there's no more sanctuary for little Jack -- even when he cuts his hair now.

"The Szablewski child is completely innocent in this matter and was never the subject of any disciplinary action, such as suspension. It is Mrs. Szablewski's failure to uphold her agreement to have the child's hair cut after being given 13 months to do so," according to a statement from the Diocese.

Szablewski insists she didn't find out about the new hair rule until after the school accepted her $2,500 tuition fee.

"I felt like a criminal when I was told he could not come back to school," she said. "I was very angry. She really knocked me off my pins. I really wasn't expecting that. They are trying to bully us out of a parish we belonged to since 1990."

In addition, although Jack attended only seven days of school, the Szablewskis were returned only $1,000. They haven't cashed the check.

"Here we are, trying to do a good thing. According to the school handbook, you are suspended or expelled for defacing property or possessing weapons, but this was an act of charity," she said.

"I found it quite appalling that an assistant principal said to me, 'You are the one who chose to make your son different.' I thought that was very un-Christlike. I was so disgusted my spirit was broken.

"One thing I want to stress is I love my church and I do love my faith. It's not about the church; it's about the people who have the power and abuse authority."

Jack still has a date in the barber's chair.

"I will be happy when somebody is going to have my hair," the spunky 36-pounder said in the family's Ocean County backyard.

In fact, right before school started, Jack raised $1,711 selling candy for a St. Dominic Church fund-raiser.

LINK TO PHOTO:

  http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/now_what_would_jesus_do_h6FDQYe7VMNri5ilyU1tfM#ixzz13zUhwBKG