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Math teacher takes son to WeHo nail salon, defies negativity
Christian Shearhod, who teaches math in Los Angeles County, took his three-year-old son to a West Hollywood nail salon after the toddler’s daycare teacher said “painting your nails is only for girls.”
“My son came home from school upset because his teacher told him that painting his nails is only for girls, so today I’m taking him to the nail shop!” Christian Shearhod said in a TikTok video posted last week.
Shearhod noted that the boy’s daycare teacher had scolded him for wanting to paint his nails, calling it a ‘girls only’ activity.
In an interview with NBC News Shearhod said his son first expressed interest in nail polish around the age of 2.
“Since then, we started painting our nails together,” he said. Shearhod, in a relationship with his transgender girlfriend Eden, is a straight LGBTQ+ ally and uses his TikTok platform to bolster LGBTQ+ equality and visibility.
After the negativity from his son’s daycare teacher which upset his son, Shearhod told NBC News that he and his gir- lfriend hoped to cheer the boy up by taking him to the nail salon.
“I really just wanted to make sure that he didn’t have guilt or shame, because it is something that he enjoyed, and we had done together multiple times,” Shearhod said, adding that he wants his son to enjoy life to the fullest at his age, without “strict gender norms.”
The following school day, Shearhod said he spoke with Ashton’s day care teachers.
“I just told them, ‘Hey, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say that kind of thing to Ashton, kind of let him do his own thing,’” Shearhod told NBC he said to the daycare staff.
FROM STAFF REPORTS