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A Black highschool pupil in Texas who was punished for practically all of his junior yr over his coiffure has left his faculty district fairly than spend one other yr of in-school suspension, in response to his legal professional.
However Darryl George, 18, want to return to his Houston-area highschool within the Barbers Hill faculty district for his senior yr and has requested a federal choose to problem a short lived restraining order that might stop district officers from additional punishing him for not reducing his hair. It could enable him to return to high school whereas a federal lawsuit he filed proceeds.
George’s request comes after U.S. District Choose Jeffrey Brown in August dismissed many of the claims the coed and his mom had filed within the federal lawsuit alleging faculty district officers dedicated racial and gender discrimination once they punished him.
The choose solely let the gender discrimination declare stand and questioned whether or not the college district’s hair size rule causes extra hurt than good.
“Judge Brown please help us so that I can attend school like a normal teenage student during the pendency of this litigation,” George stated in an affidavit filed final month.
Brown has scheduled an Oct. 3 courtroom listening to in Galveston on George’s request.
In courtroom paperwork filed final week, attorneys for the college district stated the choose doesn’t have jurisdiction to problem the restraining order as a result of George is not a pupil within the district.
“And George’s withdrawal from the district does not deprive him of standing to seek past damages, although the district maintains that George has not suffered a constitutional injury and is not entitled to recover damages,” attorneys for the college district stated.
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The district defends its gown code, which says its insurance policies for college students are supposed to “teach grooming and hygiene, instill discipline, prevent disruption, avoid safety hazards and teach respect for authority.”
In courtroom paperwork filed final week, Allie Booker, one in every of George’s attorneys, stated the coed was “forced to unenroll” from Barbers Hill Excessive College in Mont Belvieu and switch to a different highschool in a distinct Houston space district as a result of Barbers Hill officers positioned him on in-school suspension on the primary and second day of the brand new faculty yr, which started final month.
This “caused him significant emotional distress, ultimately leading to a nervous breakdown. As a result, we had no choice but to remove him from the school environment,” Booker stated.
George’s departure “was not a matter of choice but of survival” however he needs to return, as his mom moved to the realm due to the standard of the district’s colleges, Booker stated.
George was stored out of his common highschool lessons for many of the 2023-24 faculty yr, when he was a junior, as a result of the college district stated his hair size violated its gown code. George was pressured to both serve in-school suspension or spend time at an off-site disciplinary program.
The district has argued that George’s lengthy hair, which he wears to high school in tied and twisted locs on high of his head, violates its coverage as a result of if let down, it will fall under his shirt collar, eyebrows or earlobes. The district has stated different college students with locs adjust to the size coverage.
George’s federal lawsuit additionally alleged that his punishment violates the CROWN Act, a latest state legislation prohibiting race-based discrimination of hair. The CROWN Act, which was being mentioned earlier than the dispute over George’s hair and which took impact in September 2023, bars employers and colleges from penalizing folks due to hair texture or protecting hairstyles together with Afros, braids, locs, twists or Bantu knots.
In February, a state choose dominated in a lawsuit filed by the college district that its punishment doesn’t violate the CROWN Act.
Barbers Hill’s hair coverage was additionally challenged in a Might 2020 federal lawsuit filed by two different college students. Each withdrew from the highschool, however one returned after a federal choose granted a short lived injunction, saying there was “a substantial likelihood” that his rights to free speech and to be free from racial discrimination could be violated if he was barred. That lawsuit continues to be pending.
