Dad and step-mum face abuse complaint after 'cutting daughter's hair after mum got her highlights'

A viral Facebook post has reportedly led to two firefighters in Ohio being put on leave and facing a child abuse complaint after a girl's mother wrote that her daughter had had her hair cut short because she had highlights put in for her birthday.

"This is what my daughter looked like Sunday when I took her home and the other two pics is what happened today before she was brought to me... all over me having highlights put in her hair for her birthday!" Christin Johnson wrote in a Facebook post that has now been shared over 24,000 times.

Fox 8 reported the local police chief, Colby Carroll, saying that the police and child services were investigating a child abuse complaint as the mother claims the girl's father and stepmother were behind her dramatic haircut.

"Mom was upset with how her child was being cared for... lack of better terms," the news site quoted Carroll as saying.

The father and stepmother are understood to have worked with Middleton Township fire service and have now been put on leave until the investigations are complete. There have not been any charges filed.

Middleton Township Fire Department posted a press release early in February saying they were "made aware of allegations involving two of its members", and that they had been "placed on administrative leave".

"It is our firmest duty to protect the citizens of Middleton Township and keep the public informed with pertinent information as it develops," Fire Chief Steve Asmum wrote.

With the post going viral, numerous Facebook users commented about the allegations, with some even posting pictures of a woman they claimed to be the girl's stepmother along with mocking comments about the woman's hair. Most of the comments seemed to be supportive of the girl and any trauma she might have been through.