A federal human rights complaint was launched on Saturday by the family of a Black high school student in Texas against the state’s governor and attorney general over the youngster’s prolonged suspension from his school district due to his hairdo.
Since August 31 at the Houston-area school, junior Darryl George, 17, has been serving an in-school suspension. George is a student at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu. His dreadlocks, according to school administrators, are out of bounds due to their proximity to his ear lobes and eyebrows.
George’s mother, Darresha George, and the family’s lawyer dispute the claim that the teen’s haircut is inappropriate for the setting because it is neatly coiled into dreadlocks on top of his head.
The CROWN Act, a new state law that forbids racial discrimination based on hairstyles, is said to have been violated by Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The Barbers Hill Independent School District has continued to suspend Darryl George, according to his supporters, which is against the law as of September 1.
According to the lawsuit, Abbott and Paxton failed to uphold Darryl George’s constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression and to be free from discrimination while performing their official duties. The lawsuit claims that Darryl George “should be allowed to wear his hair in the manner in which he wears it” since the “so-called neutral grooming policy” “has no close association with learning or safety and when it is applied, disproportionately impacts Black males.”
The mother of Darryl George has filed a complaint in federal court in Houston as the most recent legal action over the suspension.
Darryl George is allegedly being harassed and treated unfairly by school district employees because of his hair, and his in-school suspension is in violation of the CROWN Act, according to a legal complaint Darresha George and her attorney filed with the Texas Education Agency on Tuesday.
They claim that Darryl George is being denied the hot free lunch he is entitled to while he is suspended and is being made to sit for eight hours straight on a stool. The complaint is being looked into by the agency.
According to Darresha George, she was recently admitted to the hospital following a string of panic and anxiety attacks brought on by the stress of her son’s suspension.
The school district filed its own complaint in state court on Wednesday, requesting the judge to rule on whether the CROWN Act is violated by its dress code requirements that limit the length of student hair for boys.
Greg Poole, the superintendent of Barbers Hill, has stated that he thinks the dress code is appropriate and that it encourages pupils to follow rules as a cost-benefit analysis.
The school system declared that while it awaits the outcome of its case, it would not toughen the punishment now meted out to Darryl George.
The CROWN Act, which stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” forbids employers and educational institutions from penalizing people for their hair texture or protective hairstyles like Afros, braids, dreadlocks, twists, or Bantu knots. One of the 24 states with a version of the act is Texas.
Last year, a federal version of it was approved by the U.S. House but failed in the Senate.
Prior conflicts regarding the dress code occurred at Darryl George’s school with two other Black male pupils.
De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford’s cousins were ordered by Barbers Hill officials to trim their dreadlocks in 2020. A federal judge later determined that the district’s hair regulation was discriminatory when the families of the two students sued the school district in May 2020. Their case, which received widespread media coverage and is still unresolved, encouraged Texas lawmakers to pass the state’s CROWN Act law. Both pupils left the school, with Bradford coming back following the judge’s decision.