Black student sues governor after school suspended him for his hair

The family of a Black student suspended from his Texas high school over the way he wears his hair is suing the state’s governor and attorney general, arguing that they have failed to enforce a new law prohibiting hair discrimination.

Darryl George has been barred from classes and football at Barbers Hill High School for more than three weeks, according to a complaint filed Saturday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. While serving an in-school suspension, the 17-year-old junior has been kept from his peers, forced to sit on a stool in a cubicle and made to complete schoolwork alone. District officials also threatened to move him to an alternative school if he does not change his hair, the complaint said.

School officials say George is violating the dress code, which requires that boys keep their hair from growing beyond their eyebrows and earlobes. He wears locs “as an outward expression of his Black identity and culture,” according to the lawsuit, and they contain strands of hair from his father and stepfather.

He refuses to cut them.

The dispute at the school in Mont Belvieu, Tex., roughly 30 miles east of Houston, comes as school and workplace dress codes face scrutiny over from civil rights advocates who argue that they can be discriminatory along racial, cultural or religious grounds. The same week George was pulled out of class, a law aimed at preventing hair-based discrimination took effect in Texas.

The Crown Act — versions of which have passed in at least 24 states — mandates that school dress codes do not “discriminate against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race.”

The complaint filed by the George family argues that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) have a duty to ensure that the law was followed.

But, it says, “the Defendants have done nothing.”

Representatives for Abbott and Paxton did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday afternoon. A spokesperson for the Barbers Hill Independent School District told Houston-based KTRK-TV this month that the teen’s suspension is because of his hair length, not style.

Last week, the district asked a court to weigh in on whether its dress code violates the Crown Act, CNN reported.

“Although we believe the new law does not govern hair length, we are asking the judicial system of Texas to interpret,” Barbers Hill Superintendent Greg Poole said in a statement shared with the outlet.

The lawsuit, filed by George’s mother, Darresha George, calls for Abbott and Paxton to be compelled to stop the district and others in Texas from disciplining students due to locs and other protective styles. Through a representative, Darresha George and her attorney, Allie Booker, declined The Washington Post’s request for comment Sunday.

This is not the first time the district has been sued over allegations that its policy is discriminatory against Black students. Three years before the Crown Act passed, the school suspended De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford for keeping their hair in dreadlocks. Like George, both students were placed on in-school suspension and risked being forced into an alternative school unless they cut their hair.

Arnold, 18 at the time, would also have been barred from prom and graduation if he did not cut his hair. He ultimately transferred districts.

Bradford, 16 at the time, sued the district, alleging that the policy violated his civil rights. In 2021, a federal court granted an injunction preventing the district from enforcing the hair-length policy against Bradford.

The case is still pending.