A Texas high school student is in trouble – so much trouble that he’s been suspended for months. Now, his school is threatening to send him to an alternative school. He didn’t disrespect a teacher. He wasn’t fighting in school. His academic standing hadn't fallen below standards. Instead, Darryl George has been punished for wearing his hair a particular way.
Darryl, who is in his junior year, wears his hair in locs, a style historically and culturally worn by people of African descent, and his school says it violates its code of conduct.
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In addition to his in-school suspension, administrators will send Darryl to an alternative school.
Darryl has served more than a month of in-school suspension at Barbers Hill High School, initially getting suspended on August 31. Now, in continuation of its disciplinary action, Barbers is threatening to send him to EPIC, an alternative school program, from October 12 to November 29 for failure to comply with multiple campus and classroom regulations, the principal noted in a letter to the family.
The family gave that letter to The Associated Press.
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The student handbook has rules about hair length for male students.
Principal Lance Murphy wrote that Darryl had violated the district’s “previously communicated standards of student conduct.” The letter also mandates that Darryl not be allowed to return to regular classroom instruction until November 30 and states that he cannot return to Barber’s campus without a discussion with administrators about his behavior.
Barbers Hill belongs to an independent school district that forbids male students from having hair that extends below the eyebrows, ear lobes or the top of a T-shirt collar. The student handbook also states that hair on all students be “clean, well-groomed, geometrical and not an unnatural color or variation,” the AP reported.
The family says the policy is discriminatory.
The family attorney and Darryl’s mother, Darresha George, deny that Darryl’s locs violate the dress code. In response, the family filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency and a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state’s governor and attorney general.
They claim both failed to enforce a new law ending discrimination based on hairstyles. They argue that Darryl’s suspension and potential alternative school placement violate the state’s CROWN Act, which went in effect on September 1.
Darryl's suspension began the same week the CROWN Act passed in Texas.
The law, which is an acronym for "Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is designed to prevent race-based hair discrimination. It prohibits employers and schools from punishing people based on hair texture, and protective hairstyles, including Afros, braids, locs, twists, or Bantu knots.
Although the law has been approved in Texas, it is not yet a federal mandate. It passed in the US House last year but not in the Senate. The school district filed a lawsuit in state district court, asking a judge to rule on whether its dress code restrictions, specifying hair length for boys, is a violation of the CROWN Act.
Other Black students have experienced what Darryl is currently living through.
This is not the first time a Black student's hair style has caused controversy within the school district. In 2020, Barbers Hill officials told cousins De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford they had to cut their locs. Their families also sued. Later, a federal judge ruled that the hair policy was discriminatory.
The case eventually led to Texas lawmakers approving the state’s CROWN Act. Initially, both students withdrew from the school, but Kaden returned after the judge’s ruling.
