Texas Judge Rules In Favor Of Teen Ordered To Cut Dreads By School District
A Texas judge has ruled in favor of a Black High School teen who was order by his school district to cut his dreads earlier this year. In May, the family of Kaden Bradford, 16, filed a lawsuit after school officials told him to cut his dreadlocks as it went against their dress code/grooming policy.
After refusing to do so, he was then suspended from Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, along with his cousin, De’Andre Arnold, 18. Arnold also made headlines after he was suspended for refusing to cut his own locks in order to attend his graduation in May. He ended up receiving a $20,000 scholarship from Ellen DeGeneres.
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Now, U.S. District Court Judge George C. Hanks Jr. has issued an injunction overruling the school’s policy and allowing Bradford to return to school without any consequences for his hair. Hanks’ ruling found that Bradford “has shown a substantial likelihood that his rights under the Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment will be violated if his motion for a preliminary injunction is denied, and he has additionally shown that he will receive either inferior instruction or no instruction if his motion is denied.”
While the case is still ongoing, the families’ initial complaint read, “Black students are and have been disproportionately targeted and penalized for violating facially race-neutral grooming policies that are designed to, and have the effect of, profiling, singling out, and burdening Black children for wearing their hair in its natural state. These grooming policies ultimately present Black students with an unfair choice: either wear their hair in natural formations and be deprived of adequate educational resources or conform their hair to predominant Eurocentric hair aesthetics to receive the same educational opportunities as their white peers.”
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