- A trial is scheduled for Thursday to decide whether a black Texas high school student can continue to be punished for refusing to change his hairstyle.
- Darryl George, 18, could be punished for violating the school district’s dress code regarding hair length, which his family says violates a new state law.
- The Crown Act, which came into force in September, prohibits hair discrimination based on race.
A trial is scheduled to begin Thursday to decide whether a black Texas high school student can continue to be disciplined by his school district for refusing to change his hairstyle, but he and his family face a new state law that prohibits discipline based on race. Hair discrimination claims to be protected by.
The question is whether Darryl George’s months-long punishment for violating a Houston-area school district’s dress code policy that limits boys’ hair length violates Crown law.
The case is before Anahuac District Judge Chap Kane III after the Barbers Hill School District filed a lawsuit seeking clarification of the new law. The trial was scheduled to last one day, and Mr. Kane was expected to issue a verdict immediately after it concluded.
A black student was suspended from school because of his hairstyle.Now his family is suing Texas authorities
The Crown Act, which took effect in September, prohibits hair discrimination based on race, allowing employers and schools to exclude people based on their hair type or protective hairstyles, such as afros, braids, locs, twists, and Bantu knots. It is prohibited to punish.
Darryl George walks across the street to enroll at Barbers Hill High School after receiving a five-day in-school suspension for not cutting his hair on September 18, 2023 in Mont Belvieu, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Weick, File)
“I love my hair. It’s sacred and it’s my strength,” George said in court documents.
The Barbers Hill School District says George’s long hair, which is tied or twisted on top of his head, violates dress code regulations because when it is let down, it falls under his shirt collar, eyebrows and earlobes. Stated. The district said students with other districts also follow the length policy.
Black student suspended from school for hairstyle, school claims no discrimination
George, an 18-year-old third-grader, has not attended a regular classroom at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu since Aug. 31. Instead, he is either serving an in-school suspension or spending time in an off-campus disciplinary program. .
In court documents, the district argues that its policy does not violate the Crown Act because the law does not mention or cover hair length.
In a paid ad in the Houston Chronicle in January, Barbers Hill Superintendent Greg Poole said school districts with traditional dress codes were safer, had higher academic performance and were “more American.” This requires adaptability.”
However, George’s attorney, Allie Booker, said many of the hairstyles protected by the new law require long hair, so the Texas lawmaker who drafted the CROWN Act did not want to limit the length of the hair. He claimed that he had in mind the protection of
Texas school superintendent doubles suspension of black students for dreadlocks and dress code violations
Several of the lawmakers who authored the CROWN Act were expected to testify on George’s behalf.
One of them, state Rep. Retta Bowers, said in an affidavit that “length is protected because that is essentially why protective styles are worn.”
George’s family also filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency for failing to enforce the Crown Act and, along with the school district, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The lawsuit has been filed with a federal judge in Galveston.
Barbers Hill’s hair policy was challenged in May 2020 in a federal lawsuit filed by two other students. Two were expelled from high school, but one was granted a temporary restraining order after a federal judge granted the student a “substantial possibility” that his rights to free speech and freedom from racial discrimination would be violated if he was not allowed to do so. He returned as shown. Return to campus. That lawsuit is pending.
