The incident recalls debates over hair discrimination in schools.
A black male high school student in Texas was suspended from school twice for wearing his hair in twisted dreadlocks. After serving his first in-school suspension, he returned to school the next day with his hair in the same style. He was immediately suspended again.
Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, received multiple disciplinary action notes and was placed on in-school suspension for wearing his locs hairstyle in a ponytail, his mother, Darresha George, told CNN.
She said Darryl was suspended the same week the state’s CROWN Act, a law prohibiting discrimination based on one’s hair texture or protective hairstyle such as locs and braids, went into effect.
According to CNN, school officials told George his loc hairstyle violated the Barbers Hill Independent School District dress and grooming code, which states, “Male students’ hair will not extend, at any time, below the eyebrows or below the ear lobes.”
Darresha George mentioned that her son is feeling frustrated because of the current situation.
“He’s very anxious and very aggravated right now because he keeps getting punished for something that’s irrelevant to his education,” she said.
“He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle. That’s very uncomfortable. Every day he’d come home, he’d say his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool,” she told NBC News.
In George’s family, all the men have dreadlocks, going back generations. To them, the hairstyle has cultural and religious importance, his mother said.
“Our hair is where our strength is; that’s our roots,” Darresha George said. “He has his ancestors locked into his hair, and he knows that.”
George stated that her family has retained legal representation and is contemplating taking legal action.