XPost: alt.education, talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.nationalism.black
XPost: tx.politics

A Texas judge has ruled that a school district did not
discriminate against a black high school student when it
punished him over his dreadlocks.

Barbers Hill Independent School District suspended Darryl
George, 18, last August, saying his hairstyle violated its dress
code.

The judge found the Houston-area school did not break a state
law banning race-based bias on hair.

An attorney for the family said they plan to file an appeal.

Meanwhile, the student will remain on suspension and removed
from the school's regular classrooms.

Chambers County Judge Chap Cain III ruled in favour of the
school district after about three hours of testimony on Thursday.

Mr George spoke of his "anger, sadness, disappointment" outside
court after the decision.

How does black hair reflect black history?

The school district referred to its dress code, which says hair
cannot be "below the top of a T-shirt collar, below the
eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down".

But Mr George refused to cut his braided dreadlocks, with the
family citing its cultural significance in the black community.

Last year Texas passed the Crown Act, a state law designed to
prohibit race-based discrimination against people based on their
hairstyle.

Darresha George, the student's mother, filed a complaint on her
son's behalf, accusing the district of violating the newly
passed law.

The school district filed its own lawsuit in September, asking
the court to settle the matter, and Thursday's ruling was the
outcome of that case.

However, Barbers Hill High School's superintendent Dr Greg Poole
defended the school's decision, saying that the Crown Act did
not mention hair length specifically.

Since the start of Mr George's past year at Barbers Hill High
School, in August, he has been handed multiple disciplinary
penalties for refusing to cut his hair.

He was removed from class and placed on in-school suspension,
and later required to attend an off-campus programme.

"He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle," his
mother told the Associated Press in August.

"That's very uncomfortable. Every day he'd come home, he'd say
his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool."

Barbers Hill ISD has previously made news headlines over dress
code conflicts with its black students.

De'Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford were required to cut their
dreadlocks in 2020, and the two students' families sued.

In that case, a federal judge ruled the district's hair policy
was discriminatory.

A federal version of the Crown Act passed in the House of
Representatives in 2022, but did not pass in the Senate.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68377156

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