Teacher cuts a girl's hair out of frustration: I don't think so!!!

I read Essence.com daily and I was appalled to read a story regarding Lamya Cammon a student at Congress Elementary School in Milwaukee. The story is about her teacher becoming frustrated with Lamya's constant twirling of her hair (which was braided with beads on the end). To sum it up, the teacher claims she asked the child to stop playing with her hair on several occasions and even held her back from recess due to this classroom "distraction". The teacher admits that after she told the child several times to stop, she called her up to the front of the class, pulled out the scissors and cut this child's braid off. Lamya was obviously upset and embarrassed (of course the other children laughed) so she went back to her seat in tears. Her mother was in disbelief and so am I. What is wrong with the teachers in our schools these days? As a parent, I'm angry for several reasons:

1. The teacher, in my opinion, posed a threat to the child by approaching her with scissors
2. The teacher actually told the mother that "if the child continued she would do it again". I'm not making this up http://www.essence.com/news/breaking_news/seven_year-olds_mother_speaks_out_about.php
3. The teacher only received a fine of $175 for disorderly conduct
4. The school system hasn't issues any type of disciplinary action to the teacher. Actually the child was punished by being placed into another classroom where she doesn't know anyone.

While I know this child's actions may have been distracting, was this really the appropriate behavior modification we expect from our educators? I wouldn't think so. This is a clear example of the emotional abuse young girls experience everyday. Yes children are resilient but it really makes me mad this happened in the first place.