Judge says Texas school district can punish Black student for his hairstyle

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.

read more: 19thnews.org/…/texas-school-district-hair-discrim…

phoenixz,

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 mental gymnastics

SoyViking,
@SoyViking@hexbear.net avatar

Satanically racist

Gabu,

Someone remind the people in charge of this school that their blood is the same color as everyone else’s, please.

TeddyKila,

amerikkka-clap

SSJ2Marx,
@SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net avatar

policy that prohibits males from wearing hair that extends beyond eyebrows, earlobes or collars

fascist shit right here.

DerEwigeAtheist,
@DerEwigeAtheist@hexbear.net avatar

Why the fuck is the US still policing childrens hair? Just to be racist and enforce heteronormativity?

bigboopballs,

yes

pingveno,

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.

sugar_in_your_tea,

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.

Gabu,

Hell, during the 90s is was super fashionable for boys to have very long hair. These people are living in the 19th century.

Jordan_U,

Just because you didn’t / don’t experience it doesn’t mean it’s uncommon.

This isn’t actually about the length of his hair.

It’s that Black natural / protective hair styles are seen by racists as being “disrespectful” and they even said why they have the policy.

Their list included many things, but only one of those was actually relevent here “respect for authority”.

Racist people and racist systems will always punish Blackness. This is just one specific example of a larger pattern.

frauddogg,

This right here

pingveno,

Oh, for sure, these things still happen and far too often when it comes to race, from what I’ve heard about studies on race and disparities in treatment in schools. I’m specifically talking about hair length. I remember there were some Black boys around me in high school with longer hair, but the school drew from an area that was more heavily white, Latino, and Asian so the sample size was minuscule. This is in Portland, OR so of course the culture is going to be different than a conservative part of Texas.

Jordan_U,

My point is that focusing on length is missing the point.

That’s just the ad-hoc justification for their racist actions.

Most schools have absurd policies in writing that are never actually enforced, until someone decides it has suddenly become a-rule-so-important-we’ll-go-to-court-over-it .

Most of the time, when admin gets suddenly very focused on a rule like this, you’ll find there’s a marginalized student that they want to apply it to. But don’t bring race into this!

WIIHAPPYFEW,
@WIIHAPPYFEW@hexbear.net avatar

Reconstruction never should have ended

frauddogg,

Andrew Johnson should’ve been packed up before he could scuttle Field Order 15

Redcuban1959,

Actually it was President Rutherford B. Hayes who removed Federal Troops from the South and ended Reconstruction.

frauddogg,

Honestly show me a president from that era and there’s probably five reasons that directly tie into today’s material conditions, especially for subjects of empire, that justify that president getting packed in a swisher

frauddogg,

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.

Thordros,
@Thordros@hexbear.net avatar

The policy:

us-foreign-policy

delirious_owl,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

“You need significant length to perform the style,” Booker said. “You can’t make braids with a crew cut. You can’t lock anything that isn’t long.”

They said he couldn’t lock his hair because it was too short.

SSJ2Marx,
@SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net avatar

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.

delirious_owl,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

The…the school district that is restricting hair styles is literally called “Barber Hill”? Like actually?

WIIHAPPYFEW,
@WIIHAPPYFEW@hexbear.net avatar

Fake country lmfaooo

delirious_owl,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

Fuck I read that as “can’t”.

Psionicsickness,

Barbers Hill

I mean??? Of course they have haircut laws.

sin_free_for_00_days,

The times, they are a’changing. What a stupid time to be living. I do find some type of juvenile humor in a haircut being a problem at Barbers Hill.

RaineV1,

Even beyond the obvious issue, boys being forced to have short hair is just sexist as hell.

delirious_owl, (edited )
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

My understanding is that he would have been allowed to have this style if his hair was long.

Its ridiculous, but they are not forcing men to have shirt hair in this decision.

blindsight,

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?

i dont even

delirious_owl,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

Definitely needs more discourse on the fact that ISS is a warning to children who dont bend to authority by putting them in solitary

GlendatheGayWitch,

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.

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