Mom of Teen Wrestler Says Forced Dreadlock Hack was ‘Brutal’

The mother of a high-school wrestler ordered to have his dreadlocks cut off to compete said watching it was a “brutal” experience. “Hardest thing I’ve ever seen,” Rose Santiago-Johnson wrote on Facebook, according to the New York Post. “He is good now … but that was brutal emotionally and physically.” Referee Alan Maloney—who admitted using the N-word in an argument with a black referee in 2016—has come under blistering criticism for forcing Andrew Johnson, a junior at Buena Regional High School New Jersey, to choose between his locks and a match. The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association benched Maloney while it reviews the incident. And Olympic wrestler Jordan Burroughs said the haircut was “nonsense” and “a combination of an abuse of power, racism, and just plain negligence.”