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The fight for Black people to rock whatever hairstyle they want continues to be an issue.
The latest story comes from Texas, where a Black teenager named Darryl George was forced to sit in in-school suspension for more than two weeks because he decided to wear twisted dreadlocks while in class.
School officials told the Barbers Hills High School junior that his hairstyle broke the school’s dress code because the locks fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes.
“Male students’ hair will not extend, at any time, below the eyebrows or below the ear lobes. Male students’ hair must not extend below the top of a t-shirt collar or be gathered or worn in a style that would allow the hair to extend below the top of a t-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down,” reads the districts Dress and Grooming code.
George, 17, has been suspended since Aug. 31 and cried to his parents about the punishment. His mother, Darresha George, told CNN that the situation has affected his mental health and that his hair ultimately has nothing to do with school.
“He’s very anxious, very aggravated right now because he keeps getting punished for something that’s irrelevant to his education,” she said.
Darresha also gave a peek into the conditions of in-school suspension, which includes painful seats.
“He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle,” she said. “That’s very uncomfortable. Every day he’d come home, he’d say his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool.”
He was initially reprimanded for wearing distressed jeans and his locs, but while he was offered to switch pants, he did not cut his hair, which led to in-school suspension.
Ironically, the original punishment came the same week Texas outlawed racial discrimination based on hairstyles and textures through the “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” or CROWN Act. The law was initially passed in California in 2019, and different iterations have been seen in 24 states.
This isn’t the first time Barbers Hill High School’s dress code has negatively affected a Black student since back in 2020 DeAndre Arnold was told to cut his dreadlocks or he couldn’t walk at graduation.
See how social media is sounding off about the latest case of hair discrimination below.
