Afrigather HOUSTON — A Black highschool pupil in Texas who was punished for practically all of his junior yr over his coiffure has left his college district somewhat than spend one other yr of in-school suspension, in line with his legal professional.
However Darryl George, 18, want to return to his Houston-area highschool within the Barbers Hill college district for his senior yr and has requested a federal decide to concern a short lived restraining order that may forestall district officers from additional punishing him for not reducing his hair. It could enable him to return to high school whereas a federal lawsuit he filed proceeds.
George’s request comes after U.S. District Choose Jeffrey Brown in August dismissed many of the claims the scholar and his mom had filed within the federal lawsuit alleging college district officers dedicated racial and gender discrimination after they punished him.
The decide solely let the gender discrimination declare stand and questioned whether or not the varsity district’s hair size rule causes extra hurt than good.
“Choose Brown please assist us in order that I can attend college like a traditional teenage pupil in the course of the pendency of this litigation,” George stated in an affidavit filed final month.
Brown has scheduled an Oct. 3 court docket listening to in Galveston on George’s request.
In court docket paperwork filed final week, attorneys for the varsity district stated the decide doesn’t have jurisdiction to concern the restraining order as a result of George is now not a pupil within the district.
“And George’s withdrawal from the district doesn’t deprive him of standing to hunt previous damages, though the district maintains that George has not suffered a constitutional damage and isn’t entitled to get well damages,” attorneys for the varsity district stated.
The district defends its costume code, which says its insurance policies for college students are supposed to “educate grooming and hygiene, instill self-discipline, forestall disruption, keep away from security hazards and educate respect for authority.”
In court docket paperwork filed final week, Allie Booker, considered one of George’s attorneys, stated the scholar was “pressured to unenroll” from Barbers Hill Excessive College in Mont Belvieu and switch to a different highschool in a special Houston space district as a result of Barbers Hill officers positioned him on in-school suspension on the primary and second day of the brand new college yr, which started final month.
This “brought about him important emotional misery, in the end resulting in a nervous breakdown. In consequence, we had no alternative however to take away him from the varsity setting,” Booker stated.
George’s departure “was not a matter of alternative however of survival” however he needs to return, as his mom moved to the realm due to the standard of the district’s faculties, Booker stated.
George was stored out of his common highschool courses for many of the 2023-24 college yr, when he was a junior, as a result of the varsity district stated his hair size violated its costume code. George was pressured to both serve in-school suspension or spend time at an off-site disciplinary program.
The district has argued that George’s lengthy hair, which he wears to high school in tied and twisted locs on high of his head, violates its coverage as a result of if let down, it will fall beneath his shirt collar, eyebrows or earlobes. The district has stated different college students with locs adjust to the size coverage.
George’s federal lawsuit additionally alleged that his punishment violates the CROWN Act, a current state legislation prohibiting race-based discrimination of hair. The CROWN Act, which was being mentioned earlier than the dispute over George’s hair and which took impact in September 2023, bars employers and faculties from penalizing individuals due to hair texture or protecting hairstyles together with Afros, braids, locs, twists or Bantu knots.
In February, a state decide dominated in a lawsuit filed by the varsity district that its punishment doesn’t violate the CROWN Act.
Barbers Hill’s hair coverage was additionally challenged in a Might 2020 federal lawsuit filed by two different college students. Each withdrew from the highschool, however one returned after a federal decide granted a short lived injunction, saying there was “a considerable probability” that his rights to free speech and to be free from racial discrimination could be violated if he was barred. That lawsuit remains to be pending.
