HOUSTON (AP) — A black high school student in Texas was suspended for most of his junior year because of the way he wore his hair. His lawyer says the student has left his school district rather than spend another year being kicked out of school.
Darryl George, 18, wants to go back to his high school in the Barbers Hill school district in the Houston area for his final year. He has asked a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order so that district officials can’t punish him any further for not cutting his hair. It would let him go back to school while the criminal case he filed goes on.
In August, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown threw out most of the claims that the student and his mother had made in their federal case that school district officials were biassed against them because of their race or gender when they punished him. This is why George is asking for more information.
The judge only agreed with the claim of gender discrimination and asked if the school district’s rule on hair length does more harm than good.
In a statement turned in last month, George asked Judge Brown to help them so that George could go to school like any other teen while the case was being heard.
George asked Brown to set up a court meeting for October 3 in Galveston.
Lawyers for the school district said in court papers filed last week that the judge doesn’t have the power to issue the blocking order since George is no longer a student in the district.
Lawyers for the school district said, “George’s leaving the district does not take away his right to seek past damages, even though the district maintains that George has not suffered a constitutional injury and is not entitled to recover damages.”
In defence of its dress code, the district says that its rules are meant to “teach grooming and hygiene, instill discipline, prevent disruption, avoid safety hazards, and teach respect for authority.”
Anyie Booker, one of George’s lawyers, said in court papers filed last week that the student was “forced to unenroll” from Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu and transfer to another high school in a different Houston area district because he was suspended at Barbers Hill on the first and second days of the new school year, which started last month.
This “caused him a lot of emotional pain, which eventually led to a nervous breakdown.” “Because of this, we had no choice but to take him out of school,” Booker said.
The reason George left “was not a matter of choice but of survival,” but he wants to go back because his mother moved there because of the good schools, Booker said.
When George was a junior in high school, he missed most of his regular classes because the school board said his long hair broke the dress code. George had to either do time in school in a punishment program or go to one that was not at school.
The school district says George’s long hair, which he wears to school in twisted and tied locs on top of his head, breaks the rules because it would fall below his shirt collar, eyebrows or earlobes if it were let down. The school board said that other students with locs follow the length rule.
George’s federal case also said that his punishment goes against the CROWN Act, a new state law that stops hair discrimination based on race. Before the fight over George’s hair, the CROWN Act was being talked about.
It went into effect in September 2023 and says that schools and workplaces can’t punish people because of their hair texture or protective hairstyles like Afros, braids, locs, twists, or Bantu knots.
The school district sued the state in February, and the judge said that the sentence does not go against the CROWN Act.
In May 2020, two other students also sued in federal court against Barbers Hill for its hair policy. Both dropped out of high school, but one came back after a federal judge issued a temporary order, stating that he would be violated in his rights to free speech and not be subject to racial discrimination if he was not allowed to attend. The case is still going on.