Students across the country continue to face discrimination and disciplinary actions from their schools due to dress code violations concerning their hair, despite recent laws passed to protect them from repercussions.
Hair discrimination impacts minorities, especially Black women and girls who wear hairstyles such as dreadlocks, braids, twists, Bantu knots, afros and their natural hair.
The CROWN Act is a law in 19 states including California and Texas. It protects individuals from discrimination with a different hair texture or hairstyle from the white normative style. CROWN stands for: “Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural hair.”
Darryl George, a 17-year-old junior from Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas received national attention for his federal civil rights lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, for not enforcing the CROWN Act.
However, as of Aug. 31, George has been serving an in-house suspension due to violating the school’s dress code policy. According to his mother and family attorney, George even made adjustments to his dreadlocks, a natural style for many in the Black and African American community, to meet the requirements set by his school.
A CNN report pointed out that the school district does not prohibit students wearing locs or braids, but does place limitations on how long a male’s hair can be.
According to ABC7, both George’s family and the family attorney deny that George’s hair violated the district dress code. They filed a formal complaint against the Texas Education Agency, highlighting both the governor and the agency’s failure to enforce a new law, outlawing discrimination based on hairstyles.
Currently, there are 23 states with no legislation protecting those whose natural hair texture violates dress code policies in schools and places of business according to a PBS report. Furthermore, there is no data that has been collected as of yet to determine how many schools or school districts have updated their policies in accordance with the CROWN Act. Consequently, it is unknown how many students face discrimination from their school leaders.
Discussing the issue amongst Mt. SAC students, freshman Larkin Lee Jr, a music major, gave his insight on why our society can seem apprehensive in such cases. “We through our own dumbass actions [have portrayed an image of ourselves] that we come off like that … it’s [really] hurtful though … not being able to express yourself,” Lee said.
Freshman Andrew Grays, a graphic designer, summarized it all as he said, “I think the name of the game is tolerance.”
Tolerance was the main reason the CROWN Act was created and then legislated by the House of Representatives, but made into law in 19 states, California being amongst the first. It exposed the need for understanding how something so commonplace has become a daily obstacle to those who must abide by rules that have never been to their advantage.
Though the Civil Rights Act was passed about 55 years ago, eliminating obvious boundaries for the Black and African American communities, African Americans still have to endure many other types of discrimination. Conforming to dress and even “beauty” standards of society for decades has given attention to the need to change policies that frustrate and at times, humiliate them.
Tolerance though does not come easy when questioning established norms. In George’s case, after in-house suspension, he was sent to EPIC, an alternative disciplinary school for “failure to comply with multiple campus and classroom regulations,” according to AP. George’s case is currently ongoing in the Texas Southern District Court.
