XPost: alt.education, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: alt.society.liberalism, soc.culture.african.american   
   From: nospam@ix.netcom.com   
      
   (NewsNation) — A Texas judge ruled Thursday that a school’s suspension of   
   a Black teenager because of his dreadlocks does not violate the state’s   
   CROWN Act.   
      
   State District Judge Chap Cain, who heard case arguments Wednesday, sided   
   with Barbers Hill High School against Darryl George, 18, saying the   
   school’s suspension does not violate the law.   
      
   “The Texas legal system has validated our position that the district’s   
   dress code does not violate the CROWN Act and that the CROWN Act does not   
   give students unlimited self-expression,” the school said in a statement   
   to NewsNation partner The Hill following the ruling.   
      
   George was suspended back in August and hasn’t been in his regular   
   Houston-area high school classes since then because the district, Barbers   
   Hill, says the length of his hair violates its dress code.   
      
   The 18-year-old wears his dreadlocks on the top of his head, away from his   
   face and neck, but the school adopted a rule stating a male student’s hair   
   could not be below his eyebrows or ear lobes when let down.   
      
   Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., called Thursday’s decision “anti-Black” in   
   a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.   
      
   “Black folks deserve to show up as our full selves without punishment or   
   criminalization. Congress must pass & enforce the CROWN Act federally to   
   ban race-based hair discrimination once & for all,” Pressley said.   
      
   George’s family had filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency.   
   They also filed a civil rights lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and   
   Attorney General Ken Paxton for their alleged failure to enforce the CROWN   
   Act, which forbids racial hair discrimination.   
      
   However, some school officials argued the act does not address hair   
   length. The district filed a lawsuit arguing George’s long hair violates   
   its policy because it would fall below his shirt collar, eyebrows or   
   earlobes when let down. The district has said other students with   
   dreadlocks comply with the length policy.   
      
   Lawmakers involved in drafting the law have said its very purpose is to   
   protect hairstyles like George’s.   
      
   The attorney who crafted the law told NewsNation it was the first time the   
   CROWN Act had been challenged in Texas. If George had won the case, there   
   would have been close to 500 school districts in the state that would have   
   needed to update their dress code policies.   
      
   “It is precisely the type of case that the CROWN Act was crafted to   
   prohibit. Darryl George wears his hair in a combination of braids and   
   locks. And the rule — the neutral dress code as it were — with the school,   
   does not require hair — the boys — to wear their hair below their ear   
   lobes, or past their eyebrows. If you’ve seen the numerous pictures of   
   Darryl George, his hair does not come below his eyebrows, nor does it go   
   below his ear lobes,” said William Sherman, the attorney who helped create   
   the act.   
      
   “His hair is not affecting his education. They have many mothers out here   
   who are pushing, trying to get their kids to go to school. I have a son,   
   18 years old, who wants to go to school, who wants to get his education   
   and you all are messing with him. Why?” George’s mother Darresha said.   
      
   Barbers Hill Superintendent Greg Poole said last fall that George was   
   guilty of other school policy infractions as well that he could not   
   publicly disclose.   
      
   https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/southwest/judge-rules-against-   
   darryl-george-dreadlocks-case/   
      
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