On Thursday, a Black kid who has been on in-school suspension for more than a month due to his dreadlocks will be taken from his Texas high school and placed to a punitive alternative education program.
On Thursday, a Black kid in Texas was informed that he will be removed from his high school and put to a disciplinary alternative education program after serving more than a month of in-school suspension due to having dreadlocks.
Darryl George, 18, is a junior at Mont Belvieu’s Barbers Hill High School and has been suspended since August 31. The administrator stated in a letter supplied to The Associated Press on Wednesday that he will be transferred to EPIC, an alternative school program, from Oct. 12 to Nov. 29 for “failure to comply” with several campus and classroom policies.
George, according to Principal Lance Murphy, has regularly violated the district’s “previously communicated standards of student conduct.” The letter also states that George will be permitted to return to regular classroom teaching on Nov. 30, but will not be permitted to return to his high school’s campus until then unless he is present to meet with school leaders about his behavior.
According to the student handbook, male students are not permitted to have hair that extends below the brows, ear lobes, or the top of a T-shirt collar. Furthermore, all pupils’ hair must be clean, well-groomed, geometrical, and not an unusual hue or variety. Uniforms are not required at the institution.
Darresha George, George’s mother, and the family’s attorney both disagree that the teenager’s hairdo breaches the dress code. The family filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency last month, as well as a federal civil rights lawsuit, saying that the state’s governor and attorney general refused to implement a new rule prohibiting discrimination based on haircuts.
The family claims George’s suspension and subsequent disciplinary action violated the state’s CROWN Act, which went into effect on September 1. The law, which stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is meant to outlaw race-based hair discrimination and to prohibit employers and schools from punishing people for hair texture or protective hairstyles like as Afros, braids, dreadlocks, twists, or Bantu knots.
Last year, a federal version passed the House but was defeated in the Senate.
In addition, the school district filed a complaint in state district court, requesting that a judge rule on whether its dress code regulations restricting student hair length for boys violate the CROWN Act. The complaint was filed in Chambers County, which is located east of Houston.
Previously, George’s school battled with two other Black male pupils over the clothing code.
Barbers Hill authorities informed cousins De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford that they would have to shave their dreadlocks by 2020. In May 2020, their families filed a lawsuit against the district, and a federal court subsequently determined that the district’s hair regulation was discriminatory. Their pending case prompted Texas lawmakers to pass the CROWN Act. Both pupils left school, with Bradford returning following the judge’s decision.
Source: abcnews