- Reaction score
- 1,689
A Black high school student who was suspended over his locs hairstyle and his mother have sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state’s attorney general for allegedly failing to enforce the state’s CROWN Act, a law that protects against hair discrimination.
Darryl George, a 17-year-old student at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, has been suspended for more than three weeks because officials said his locs – which he often wears in braids or a ponytail – violate the Barbers Hill Independent School District’s dress code for male students.
The policy does not prohibit students from wearing locs or braids, but it does place limitations on hair length for male students, stating hair cannot be 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.”
But the federal civil rights lawsuit, filed Saturday in the Texas Southern District Court, argues that Darryl’s suspension is a violation of the state’s CROWN Act, a law that prohibits discrimination against hair texture and protective hairstyles like locs and braids that are “commonly or historically associated with race.”
It also alleges that Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have failed to enforce the law, which went into effect on September 1.
Darryl George, a 17-year-old student at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, has been suspended for more than three weeks because officials said his locs – which he often wears in braids or a ponytail – violate the Barbers Hill Independent School District’s dress code for male students.
The policy does not prohibit students from wearing locs or braids, but it does place limitations on hair length for male students, stating hair cannot be 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.”
But the federal civil rights lawsuit, filed Saturday in the Texas Southern District Court, argues that Darryl’s suspension is a violation of the state’s CROWN Act, a law that prohibits discrimination against hair texture and protective hairstyles like locs and braids that are “commonly or historically associated with race.”
It also alleges that Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have failed to enforce the law, which went into effect on September 1.
