In Texas, a Black High School Student Is Suspended Over His Hair Length

By Christine Hauser, New York Times

Soon after starting his junior year last month at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, Darryl George was separated from his classmates because of the way he wears his hair, his mother and a lawyer said.

Since the term began on Aug. 16, Darryl, a 17-year-old Black student, has received multiple disciplinary notices that have culminated in more than a week of in-school suspension, where he sits on a stool in a cubicle and work is brought to him, according to his mother, Darresha George. Each morning, he is asked by officials at the school, about 30 miles east of Houston, whether he has cut his hair yet, she said.

He has not.

“He is actually getting singled out,” said Ms. George. “They are personally stopping him, ‘Did he cut his hair?’ Asking him at the door.”

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Supporters of the family, including legislators and activists, have called the suspension alarming, saying that it could test a new state law called the CROWN Act. The law, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed in May, says, in part, that any dress or grooming policy adopted by a school district “may not discriminate against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race.” The law does not specifically mention hair length.

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Black hair also faces discrimination in the workplace.

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