Darryl George has been suspended again in an ongoing dispute regarding his locs and whether his Texas high school’s displinary action against him violates the CROWN Act.
A Black high-schooler in Texas is continuing to face punishment for his refusal to cut his locs. Now, he has been returned to in-school suspension after being sent to an alternative school for a month.
According to NBC News, Darryl George has already spent most of his school year dealing with this dress code issue, prohibiting him from joining his classmates regularly. After returning to Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, he was immediately suspended again as his hairstyle did not abide by the dress code policy.
However, his family remains adamant that George is well within his right to wear his hair in the traditionally Black hairstyle, claiming that the school district’s policy is discriminatory and violates the CROWN ACT in the state. The legislation prohibits discrimination based on hairstyles traditionally worn based on one’s racial background.
Despite these claims, the school argues that the CROWN ACT never specified discrimination based on hair length and has stated that George is facing disciplinary action due to his locs falling below his eyebrows and ears. The division on the issue has remained at a standstill, with George’s family refusing to back down. They have also filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency and a federal civil rights lawsuit to seek justice on the matter.
“We are just trying to take it day by day. That’s all we can do,” shared the teenager’s mother, Darresha George, to The Associated Press. “We do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. But we are not giving up.”
Both parties are waiting for a state district court judge to verify whether or not the school’s policy also extends to hair length and if the school can punish male students whose natural hair form infringes upon the length requirement.
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