Schoolboy, 15, is put in isolation and told to chop off his mullet because the hairdo is ‘too extreme’

A 15-year-old boy was placed in isolation for a day and told to shop for his mullet because the haircut was “too extreme,” his mother says.

Toby Quinn was separated from his classmates and placed in isolation after his teachers told him his Australian style was ‘unacceptable and unprofessional’.

St Aidan’s Catholic Academy in Sunderland gave the teenager a week to cut it off.

He was previously punished and isolated for having his hair too short, and was left fuming when he was recently told his hairstyle was now too long.

The school extended the deadline when his mother said he was growing it for charity, but now he has been forced to shorten the deadline.

Toby’s mother Naomi, 47, said the school deemed her son’s new haircut as extreme after they recently changed their haircut policy.

The mother-of-two said: ‘His teachers said they had changed the cutting policy and it had to go.

“They said it wasn’t professional, that he couldn’t have it and that he had to take it down.

‘I don’t know why a 15-year-old should be considered professional. The general gist was that it was considered extreme.

‘He became isolated because he had it, he became separated from the school community and stayed there for the rest of the day.

‘He has previously been in isolation because his hair was too short. They did not allow the skin to fade.

‘Oddly enough, they relaxed the cutting rule and allowed them to fade their skin. He was the only boy with a mullet at school and they didn’t like that.

“The staff told me he had to have his mullet cut off. During a meeting I was told it had to be taken down.

“That was about four weeks ago, they gave him seven days to get rid of the hair.”

The teenager from Ashbrooke, Sunderland, was initially given a week to chop off his locks, but teachers extended the deadline when he revealed his plans to raise money for charity.

And on Tuesday Toby had his mullet cut for the Newcastle Hospitals Charity in support of a unit that saved his granddad’s life last year.

The teenager has so far managed to raise more than £340 in donations after setting up a JustGiving page three weeks ago.

His mother, who is a hairdresser, said: ‘We told them he had decided to raise money and they said he had a few weeks.

‘However, he was not happy at all about losing the mullet, he said he was furious. But he is at peace with it, he has had a few weeks to process it.

‘He thought it would be good to get something positive out of a pretty crappy situation.

‘I suggested it would be good to raise money for the unit that saved his grandfather last year.

‘We started three weeks ago. His target was £200, but he has now raised over £340.

“But he’s a typical teenager, so he’s pretty relaxed about it.”

The 15-year-old said: ‘I was furious when my mother told me the school said my mullet had to go.

“But then I thought about doing the fundraiser and making some money for charity, and I felt better about it.

‘My mum told me about the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle because they saved my grandad last year and maybe I could help other people who have had a heart attack too.’

Several schools in Australia have banned the hairstyle – which came to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s – as it has recently come back into fashion.

But this is believed to be the first time a British school has tackled the mullet in recent years after it started coming back into fashion here.

Once made famous by the likes of Jason Donavan, Rod Stewart and Andre Agassi, modern celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna have all sported this hairstyle.

MailOnline has contacted St Aidan’s Catholic Academy for comment.