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Thursday, February 22, 2024
Today’s Paper
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U.S.|Black Student’s Suspension Over Hairstyle Didn’t Violate Law, Texas Judge
Rules

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BLACK STUDENT’S SUSPENSION OVER HAIRSTYLE DIDN’T VIOLATE LAW, TEXAS JUDGE RULES

The trial was the latest development in a case that has prompted scrutiny of
education policies and race in the United States.

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Darryl George, a high school student in Texas, was suspended for violating a
dress code because he has locs, or long ropelike strands of hair, that he pins
on his head in a barrel roll.Credit...Michael Wyke/Associated Press


By Christine Hauser and Patrick McGee

Patrick McGee reported from Anahuac, Texas.

Feb. 22, 2024Updated 4:26 p.m. ET

A Texas judge ruled on Thursday that a school district’s dress code, which it
used to suspend a Black student last year for refusing to change the way he
wears his hair, did not violate a state law meant to prohibit race-based
discrimination against people based on their hairstyle.

The student, Darryl George, 18, has locs, or long ropelike strands of hair, that
he pins on his head in a barrel roll, a protective style that his mother said
reflected Black culture. Since the start of his junior year last August, he has
faced a series of disciplinary actions at Barbers Hill High School in Mont
Belvieu, about 30 miles east of Houston, after refusing to cut his hair. He was
separated from his classmates, given disciplinary notices, placed in in-school
suspension and sent to an off-campus program.

The hearing on Thursday, in the 253rd Judicial District Court in Anahuac, was in
response to a lawsuit filed in September by the Barbers Hill Independent School
District. The lawsuit argued that Mr. George was “in violation of the District’s
dress and grooming code” because he wears his hair “in braids and twists” at a
length that extends “below the top of a T-shirt collar, below the eyebrows,
and/or below the earlobes when let down.”

The district asked State District Judge Chap B. Cain III to clarify whether the
dress code violated a state law called the Texas CROWN Act, as the defendants,
Mr. George and his mother, Darresha George, assert. The act, which took effect
on Sept. 1, says a school district policy “may not discriminate against a hair
texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race.”
It does not specifically mention hair length.



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“The CROWN Act does not render unlawful those portions of the Barbers Hill dress
and grooming restrictions limiting male students’ hair length,” Judge Cain said.


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“I am not going to tell you that this has been an easy decision to make,” the
judge said. Addressing the family, he encouraged them to “go back to the
Legislature or go back to the school board because the remedy you seek can be
had from either of those bodies.”

Allie Booker, a lawyer for the Georges, said she would appeal the ruling and
seek an injunction to prevent the district from punishing Mr. George pending the
outcome of a federal civil rights lawsuit that he and his mother filed last year
against the state’s governor and attorney general.



The Georges left without commenting to reporters, more than a dozen of whom had
gathered at the courthouse. State Representative Jolanda Jones said she walked
them to their car.

“When I accompanied Darryl and his mom to the car, I saw a child that was
crying, and he was upset and he didn’t understand,” Ms. Jones, a Democrat, said
in an interview. “His mother was visibly shaking.”



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Dr. Greg Poole, the superintendent of the Barbers Hill Independent School
District, said in an emailed statement that the ruling “validated our position”
that the dress code does not violate the state law, which “does not give
students unlimited self-expression.”

The trial was the latest development in a case that has prompted scrutiny of
education policies and race in the United States. At least 24 states have
adopted laws that make it illegal to discriminate against students or workers
because of their hairstyle.

The case involving Mr. George began soon after officials at the school objected
to his locs and told Ms. George that the length of her son’s hair, even though
it was pinned, violated the district’s dress code. The district subjected him to
punishments, including suspension, after he refused to cut it.

Ms. George and her son filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of Texas in September against Texas’ governor,
Greg Abbott, who signed the law, and the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton,
saying they allowed the school to violate the act.

Their lawsuit is seeking a temporary order to stop Darryl’s suspension while the
case moves through the federal court system, and accuses Mr. Abbott and Mr.
Paxton of “purposely or recklessly” causing Ms. George and Darryl emotional
distress by not intervening.



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Supporters of the family, including legislators and activists, also said the
measures violated the CROWN Act.

The family’s lawsuit said that Mr. George wears locs as an “expression of
cultural pride” and claims that his protections under the federal Civil Rights
Act are being violated because the dress code policy disproportionately affects
Black male students.

In October, Mr. George was transferred to an off-campus disciplinary program. In
December, he was allowed to return to his high school but then was given another
in-school suspension, this time for 13 days.

In January, Mr. Poole, the superintendent, defended the policy in an
advertisement published in The Houston Chronicle, saying that districts with
dress codes are safer and have higher academic performance, and that “being an
American requires conformity.”

Kitty Bennett contributed research.




Christine Hauser is a reporter, covering national and foreign news. Her previous
jobs in the newsroom include stints in Business covering financial markets and
on the Metro desk in the police bureau. More about Christine Hauser

A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 23, 2024, Section A, Page 17
of the New York edition with the headline: Black Student Can Be Suspended Over
His Hairstyle, a Texas Judge Rules. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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