A judge on Thursday ruled that a Texas high school was not violating the state’s CROWN Act by punishing a Black teen over the length of his dreadlocks.
As we previously reported, Darryl George served more than a month of in-school suspension over his dreadlocks and then was informed that he would be removed from his high school and sent to a disciplinary alternative education program. After returning from the program, the 18-year-old was suspended once again for 13 days because his hair was out of compliance when let down, according to a disciplinary notice issued by Barbers Hill High School. According to NBC News, George has already spent more than 80% of his junior year outside of his regular classroom.
Candice Matthews, the family’s spokesperson talked to reporters after the trial and stated that George was in tears because he just wants to learn. “All because of my hair?” he said, according to Matthews. “I can’t get my education because of my hair. I can’t be around my peers and enjoy my junior year because of my hair.” Matthews said the family has vowed not to “lay down. They would continue to fight.”
This whole ordeal first took place back in September when George was suspended after school officials said his twisted dreadlocks violated the district’s dress and grooming code. Although the district’s policy does not prohibit dreadlocks or braids, it states that male student’s hair cannot “be gathered or 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 George’s mother, Darresha George, and Allie Booker, the family’s attorney, have denied that the teenager’s hairstyle violates the district’s policy.
The family also filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency and a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state’s governor and attorney general, alleging they failed to enforce a new law outlawing discrimination based on hairstyles.
The lawsuit and supporters of George allege that his ongoing suspension is a violation of Texas’ CROWN Act, a new law that is intended to prohibit “discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective hairstyle associated with race,” according to state Rep. Rhetta Andrews Bowers, D-Rowlett, who authored the bill.