A Black Texas high school student who was suspended because his loc hairstyle violated the district’s dress code was suspended again upon his return to school Monday, an attorney for the family told CNN.
Darryl George has been suspended for more than two weeks because his loc hairstyle violates the Barbers Hill Independent School District dress and grooming code, according to his family.
The code states that “male students’ hair will not extend, at any time, below the eyebrows or below the ear lobes,” CNN previously reported.
Dress code standards for hair and appearance are pretty dumb… but even as they are written in this school district, I don’t understand how this kid’s hair violates it.
The code says the hair can’t extend below the eyebrows or below the ear lobes…and this kid’s hair is above his eyebrows and above his ear lobes. I’m looking at the student’s front, side, and back photos that are attached to the linked news article. What is the problem?
The “problem” is hes black and the school wanted to punish him for that. But they dont want to just come out and say it just like they didnt want to show their faces back in the days of the klan.
As far as I can tell, the “problem” is that the dresscode states that the student’s hair can’t extend below his eyebrows or ear lobes “at any time”. So, hypothetically, if this student took his hair down out of the braids, it would be longer than the dresscode allowed.
This, of course, is fucking stupid reasoning. The school probably just doesn’t like this hairstyle - because racism - and is choosing to use an overly literal reading of the rule to try to force the student to change it.
From the interview, his mother says it’s because if he let his hair down it might “extend below the eyebrows or below the ear lobes”. I think it’s a poorly written policy, because in my interpretation, he would only be in violation if he let his hair down, but he’s in compliance as long as he never does that at school. And even then, would for example, an afro violate that? It sounds like they should have included in the policy “male students’ hair will must be no longer than 3" at any point" but again, that’s a poorly written policy, waiting for holes to be punched in it.
I’m assuming that his hair was slightly different from when this picture was taken. Not that it matters even a little bit. Codes like this are written for the purpose of giving authorities an excuse to persecute. Wouldn’t be surprising if they ignored plenty of violations from “upstanding” (read: white) students.