After a short trial, a Texas judge ruled that Barbers Hill school officials are not violating a new state law prohibiting hair discrimination.
After a short trial, a Texas judge ruled that Barbers Hill school officials are not violating a new state law prohibiting hair discrimination.
A Texas judge on Thursday said the Barbers Hill Independent School District can punish a Black student who wears his hair in long locs without violating Texas’ new CROWN Act, which is meant to prevent hairstyle discrimination in schools and workplaces.
The decision came after a monthslong dispute between the district and Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School who has been sent to in-school suspension since August for wearing his hair in long locs. Legislators last year passed a law called the Texas CROWN Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective styles associated with race. Protective styles include locs, braids and twists.
But the Barbers Hill school district successfully argued it can still enforce its policy that prohibits males from wearing hair that extends beyond eyebrows, earlobes or collars even if it’s gathered on top of the student’s head.
Judge Chap B. Cain III issued the ruling after a short trial in which lawyers for opposing sides argued over the legislative intent behind the CROWN Act. Lawyers for Barbers Hill said lawmakers would have included explicit language about hair length had they intended the law to cover it. Allie Booker, representing Darryl George and his mother Darresha George, said protective styles are only possible with long hair.
Booker said after the Texas ruling Thursday that she intends to appeal the decision. She also said she will file an injunction in a pending federal lawsuit filed by Darresha and Darryl George against the school district as well as state leaders.
I hope this can get struck down on appeal. I'm glad they are continuing to fight. How racist and farcical. Poor kid.
I’m a man that has mostly had long hair since I was 14. It’s part of my identity. Their whole ‘collar length’ rule is one I would simply have laughed at them for.
But I’m white (and a man). No one tries to bully me when I set boundaries.
Fuck those administrators and their heavy-handed attempt to step on that child’s sense of self. Their school rules do not supersede state law.
Racist, racist is what it is. A conservative excercise in power, in service of reenforcing the racist hierarchy of white people over black people that Conservatives love so much.
The district suspended him and put him in ISS (in-school suspension) on the grounds that the code of conduct says that boy hair must be short. The ruling upholds the district punishing the student because his hair is long. This means that the ruling forces students to have short hair when the district mandates it.
You read it backwards. Boys are not permitted to have hair past their eyebrows, earlobes, or collars. The school district's opinion was that it doesn't matter if the hair is tied up in locs, the length of the hair violates their hair-length restrictions regardless of the style.
They have kept the student out of class since August denying him instruction materials and the school-provided hot lunch for not respecting the policy which, among other things, is meant to "teach respect for authority".
Even worse, this is all despite there being a law in Texas that was explicitly written in response to a different Texas high school denying a student from attending graduation with the same hair style. But, according to the school board, and agreed to by the judge, the legislation did not specifically allow for exemption to hair length in school dress codes. They aren't policing his hair style (that requires long hair), they're policing his hair length. Which is, apparently, legal.
Why the fuck is that a school policy in the 21st century? And who the fuck thought it was appropriate to put a student into quasi solitary confinement for a semester and go to court to fight for the right to enforce institutional racism?
This kind of shit is exactly why I don't lower my guard around whites anymore; especially not the ones south of the Mason-Dixon. They get a little bit of power over you, and suddenly everything about you that makes them uncomfortable from your hair to your diction to the parts of your culture that you embrace all become open to sanction and life-derailing 'punishment'. Prayin this man Darryl keeps fighting.
That's the only silver lining to this case. It is making national news because this is far from the norm. I know there were plenty of boys when I was growing up who had longer hair. Unlike the idiots running this school, my school administrators had better things to do than go after them for a style choice that had no bearing on academic performance.
I'm in a very conservative part of the country and there are a few boys in my neighborhood that have long hair. And that's with the culture here being against such things.
It's really a non-issue pretty much everywhere. I guess some admin somewhere was a bit too power hungry.
I think that was his own lawyer explaining that the hairstyles protected by the law are all long hair styles, while the rule that the school is punishing him for is one that requires boys to have crew cuts. So the argument is that that rule is in violation of the law.
A Texas judge on Thursday said the Barbers Hill Independent School District can punish a Black student who wears his hair in long locs without violating Texas’ new CROWN Act, which is meant to prevent hairstyle discrimination in schools and workplaces