A week after a Texas superintendent took out a newspaper ad to defend the continued suspension of Darryl George over the way he wears his hair, the Black teen’s family filed a third request for a religious exemption to allow him to return to school months after he was originally disciplined.
George’s family sued the state’s governor and attorney general in September, alleging that the state failed to enforce a new law that prohibits hair discrimination when the high school junior was suspended because the district said his hair was too long. George has been repeatedly suspended and disciplined since.
“Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity,” wrote Greg Poole, the superintendent, in a Jan. 14 full-page advertisement in the Houston Chronicle, referencing dress codes at military academies as an example he said demonstrated the importance of rigorous standards. The ad ran after the Chronicle published an editorial criticizing the district’s actions.
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Poole wrote that the suspension was based on George’s hair length — not style — which he argued is not protected under the Crown Act passed last year. He added that “despite our relatively small percentage of African-American students,” the district has a progressive history, pointing to Black school board members in the 1970s and now who help set policy.
The Barbers Hill Independent School District superintendent also wrote that other Black students have received religious exemptions for the school’s dress code, which he said allows braids, locs and twists but requires that boys’ hair must not extend past their eyebrows and earlobes. George wears locs that do not go below his ears, and family representatives said they had applied twice for that exemption but were denied. The district has said George’s hair is longer than allowed when let down.
“The men in our family show they locks as a sign of connection with our roots and ancestors, which keeps us connected and closer to the Higher power God,” wrote Darresha George, Darryl’s mother, in an exemption form filed Tuesday viewed by The Washington Post.
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The mother also filed on Tuesday a complaint calling for the Texas Education Agency to investigate the district while alleging that school officials failed to turn in previous grievances to the district. The BHISD previously told the family and its representatives it would not provide another denial memo, according to emails shared with The Post.
The request is the latest in a months-long conflict between the family, which says that they are facing discrimination because they are Black, and the district, which says that it is enforcing a hair-length requirement that extends to all students. The dispute is taking place in Mont Belvieu, Tex., a town of almost 9,000 about 30 miles east of Houston.
“That is a pretextual excuse,” said Allie Booker, the family’s attorney. “The truth is that they allow White males to wear their hair long, just not Black ones. … It’s about race and nappy coarse hair being long.”
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Booker and Candice Matthews, the state chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, spoke to The Post on the family’s behalf because they said George’s mother has had a mental breakdown because of the case. Matthews added that George has considered giving up the fight and cutting his hair because of the effect the drawn-out saga has had on his family. He has so far refused, though, to cut his hair.
Share this articleShareOn Wednesday, a hearing in Chambers County District Court could set a date for a possible injunction. Neither the school district nor the Barbers Hill Education Foundation, a nonprofit that paid for the ad, immediately responded to a request for comment Tuesday.
Texas is one of at least 24 states that have passed a version of the Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act, known as the Crown Act, to address discrimination that Black people in particular have faced in the workplace or at school. Across the country, civil rights advocates have said that school hair and dress codes have the potential to discriminate along racial, cultural or religious lines and enforce outdated gender stereotypes.
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State Rep. Ron Reynolds (D), who co-wrote the Texas law and has noted that many natural hairstyles need to be a certain length, said the school district is bucking the law meant to protect students like George. He called on the district to revise its dress code and end the disciplinary actions.
“They are trying to argue that there is a loophole in the law, that it doesn’t cover length, which is nonsense,” said Reynolds, who chairs the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. He added that the full-page advertisement was a “PR attempt to deflect the fact that they’re violating Texas law.”
Poole said in the newspaper ad that the district asked a court to determine whether the dress code violates the Crown Act. Reynolds told The Post that if the court rules that the district can continue suspending George, family representatives could appeal the decision. He added that legislators would rewrite the law next session, if necessary.
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Three years before the Crown Act passed, the same school suspended DeAndre Arnold and Kaden Bradford for keeping their hair in dreadlocks. Both students were placed on in-school suspension and, if they didn’t cut their hair, risked being forced to move schools.
Arnold, 18 at the time, ultimately transferred districts, while Bradford, then 16, sued the district, alleging the policy violated his civil rights. In 2021, a federal court prevented the district from enforcing the policy against Bradford in an injunction. The case is pending.
“Ultimately, this is an issue of local control and deciding who should be setting the policies, goals and expectations of our school district,” Poole wrote in the ad. “The litigation is not about what is best for students.”
Reynolds said the district is sending the wrong message to students about who can be successful. He added that Poole’s claim of local control mirrors how states used to defend not following federal civil rights-related laws.
“They’re trying to make their African American students conform to European students,” he said. “Meanwhile, they’re not conforming to the law that we passed.”
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