After serving more than a month of in-school suspension over his dreadlocks, a Black student in Texas was told he will be removed from his high school and sent to a disciplinary alternative education program on Thursday. Darryl George, 18, is a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu and ...
After serving more than a month of in-school suspension over his dreadlocks, a Black student in Texas was told he will be removed from his high school and sent to a disciplinary alternative education program on Thursday.
Darryl George, 18, is a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu and has been suspended since Aug. 31. He will be sent to EPIC, an alternative school program, from Oct. 12 through Nov. 29 for “failure to comply” with multiple campus and classroom regulations, the principal said in a Wednesday letter provided to The Associated Press by the family.
Principal Lance Murphy wrote that George has repeatedly violated the district's “previously communicated standards of student conduct." The letter also says that George will be allowed to return to regular classroom instruction on Nov. 30 but will not be allowed to return to his high school's campus until then unless he's there to discuss his conduct with school administrators.
Barbers Hill Independent School District prohibits male students from having hair extending below the eyebrows, ear lobes or top of a T-shirt collar, according to the student handbook. Additionally, hair on all students must be clean, well-groomed, geometrical and not an unnatural color or variation. The school does not require uniforms.
George's mother, Darresha George, and the family's attorney deny the teenager's hairstyle violates the dress code. The family last month filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency and a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state’s governor and attorney general, alleging they failed to enforce a new law outlawing discrimination based on hairstyles.
The family alleges George's suspension and subsequent discipline violate the state’s CROWN Act, which took effect Sept. 1. The law, an acronym for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is intended to prohibit race-based hair discrimination and bars employers and schools from penalizing people because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including Afros, braids, dreadlocks, twists or Bantu knots.
A federal version passed in the U.S. House last year, but was not successful in the Senate.
The school district also filed a lawsuit in state district court asking a judge to clarify whether its dress code restrictions limiting student hair length for boys violates the CROWN Act. The lawsuit was filed in Chambers County, east of Houston.
George’s school previously clashed with two other Black male students over the dress code.
Barbers Hill officials told cousins De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford they had to cut their dreadlocks in 2020. Their families sued the district in May 2020, and a federal judge later ruled the district’s hair policy was discriminatory. Their pending case helped spur Texas lawmakers to approve the state’s CROWN Act. Both students withdrew from the school, with Bradford returning after the judge’s ruling.
So... Where is the catalog of approved haircuts for students to pick from? Fucking fascist ideas being masked in bullshit like avoiding fake "distractions" in classrooms.
I'm sure we could get creative here. Like, you could go with the Friar Tuck look with the top part shaved and that would be fine. I guess it depends on what they consider "geometrical"
Principal Lance Murphy is literally just going to die on this hill apparently. Between the massive cost the school district took because of the 2020 court loss over this exact same thing, and this giant L the school district is about to take for not only being now in Violation of Federal Law but also Texas literally passed a law, because of this asshat and the 2020 loss, indicating that he's not legally allowed to do exactly what he's doing.
The school district also filed a lawsuit in state district court asking a judge to clarify whether its dress code restrictions limiting student hair length for boys violates the CROWN Act
Which if you are unsure if your policy is violating a law or not, you should likely not have the policy until the court gives you more clarity. Because if the Courts do indeed indicate that the school is in violation of Texas' CROWN Act, they've just handed this kid millions of dollars in restitution, which I guess they can just pile on top of the millions this school district has blown so far on litigation.
You would think that at some point taxpayers would be up in arms, but nope it's Texas, blowing billions on stupid lawsuits is their thing.
How does a previous case not automatically make the current situation unacceptable? Do they have to retry the exact same situation over and over again?
Because principal is a bully and willing to use his powers to destroy lives. The methods to protect people are very slow and so he gets away with it for years until the district loses a major lawsuit. Then he quietly gets reassigned or retires and we pretend the entire thing never happened.
A previous case is certainly a good argument in court, however the opposition may be able to argue material differentiating circumstances that may not be immediately obvious (in general, not in this case). That is why it isn't considered an automatic win.
To be fair being racist has long been a winning strategy in Texas so you can imagine that their bag of tricks isn’t particularly deep in matters like this
I'm not a kid, but looking back on this type of situation as an adult, I'd settle for half of whatever they offer as long as the administrator(s) driving this were also banned from all public education jobs in the state, permanently. Fines to the district aren't a deterrent to bad administration on their, but fear of job security absolutely is.
Fuck it makes me so mad when schools make boys cut their hair. My little brother had to cut his hair that he had been growing since he was in his single digits. It was devastating. This was back in the early '00s
Nah, they're not asking. This is a setup for a challenge of the CROWN Act and a possible reversal. Just watch, they'll appeal it all the way up to Texas Supreme Court if they need to.
The problem is largely the structure of our democracy. The left shows up, they showed up more in the last decade than they ever have. And we're still sliding backward.
Because the way our idiotic system works, the number of people that show up matter less than the zip code they show up in.
I'd love to see what a liberal asshole politician would look like, but i can't see it working out today. As much as the right blows wokeism out of proportion, PC culture is still a thing in a lot of liberal areas, and if you're not PC as a liberal politician I imagine you'll offend the more sensitive parts of your own base. Didn't Bernie Sanders get hit with some of that? And he wasn't even that assholeish, he just showed a spine.
Ilhan Omar's treatment of a woman asking for her political support in opposition to female genital mutilation was pretty close to being a liberal asshole politician (or it revealed her to be trying to have her cake and eat it; namely, that she takes positions designed to get liberal support, and simultaneously strategically acts like a regressive when it comes to FGM to get support from African hijabis and other Islamists).
I’m openly curious how well a “liberal” minded individual who isn’t afraid to be an asshole would be received.
Speaking from experience here, people will actively, and sometimes collectively, attack you for it. They'll gang up on you online. They'll openly and often violently bully you in real life. They'll even abuse the legal system to get rid of you if they are angry enough at you.
Being an asshole towards shitty people (and the vast majority of humans are shitty people, myself included) is very VERY enlightening on how our rights and our laws are just a thin veneer covering what really governs our lives, and that is our feelings. Most humans could give a fuck less about logic, facts or the truth; they only care about their emotions and what they want because they are only connected to the real world through their emotions, not their minds.
Humans are no better than base animals and being willing to be a horrifying House-level dick towards those you think are deserving demonstrates this, really handily.
It doesn't surprise me that poor young man was forced to go to an alternate school where the diploma he'll get won't be as respected by the colleges he'll apply to. He probably told them off for being so blatantly racist and, in their hurt, they kicked him out.
Are we kowtowing to a miniscule minority? The only kowtowing I personally observe are academic institutions within states with GOP-dominated legislatures and courts. K-12 schools in progressive areas within such states have to tread carefully to keep the man off their back, and public universities have to carefully craft their language relating to research and programs. But largely it's a semantic game, where the substance doesn't change but the language used is toned down to avoid attention of asshats. Similar to any research related to human sexuality when there's a Republican president in the White House and the NIS/NIH leadership is dominated by GOP appointees - they don't change the research, but they absolutely rework the language used to describe the project.
The entire US culture that the world sees is a lie. Anyone who lives or has visited is aware, but all these other people watch movies and think American is some magical land.
Nah, wealth is just built on slavery and opression.
Modern day slavery in jails and low wages tied to healthcare.
Specifically, it seems the school was explicitly told to target a single student in order for opening a way for the Governor to challenge the CROWN act in courts. It's pure political maneuvering. Picking scapegoats and destroying individuals to advance racists agendas.
It sounds like there have been a few other code of conduct violations and the schools issue with his hair style was the final straw. Who knows if the previous "violations of the code" were also rooted in racism, but either way, a hair style should never be the ultimate reason someone is expelled unless they've purposefully shaved an offensive slurr into their hair.
Looks like it's part of a uniform requirement. It's part of the "make them all look the same, that will stop bad behavior".
Public school shouldn't be that way and it's stupid in general. I went to "management school" for most of my middle school years and they did that to stop kids from fighting over colors and shit. Kinda made sense there though because we were all "bad apples".
Barbers Hill Independent School District prohibits male students from having hair extending below the eyebrows, ear lobes or top of a T-shirt collar, according to the student handbook. Additionally, hair on all students must be clean, well-groomed, geometrical and not an unnatural color or variation. The school does not require uniforms.
Land of the fucking free.
Call me when the HOA allows you to plant clover on the front lawn.
To be fair it could maybe be counted under unnatural variations.
He is styling it in a way that is not typical for the society he actively participates in.
(second part not necessarily connected to your comment anymore)
But I think it's stupid to ban hair styles anyway. I often had some classmates with weird hairstyles and guess what, didn't distract me from school.
In my opinion the dresscodes for school should be:
cover your genitals generously, ass and boobies (regardless of gender. I think there isn't place for shirtless guys in school outside of the gym). In general that means pants/dress/skirt and a shirt/top, but I wouldn't care if they wear a toga or whatever.
don't wear extreme political symbols or other obviously widespread offensive symbols (e.g. a swastika)
unless absolutely required by your religion, or physical reasons like a burnt face, never wear anything that covers your face.
(medical masks in case of illness or pandemics excluded)
And that should be it
(this list includes my limitations on hair styles and tattoos as well)
The article mentions some concerns about still allowing HOAs to require homeowners to submit plans for approval, but in my experience just mentioning the state law is enough to get any denial overturned.
I don't think it's racism tbh. I went to a Texas highschool and they tried to make me cut my hair when I was younger. I am biracial and never did I consider it racial. Is it a dumb rule? Yes. It was created during the hippy era as a stand of some sort.
By implementing a hair policy that excludes styles and lengths which are clearly a part of black culture and a way of expressing identity in America, the policy is racist. Whether or not the intent was racism, it still has the effect, making it a racist policy. It can also be discriminatory towards queer people and other cultures.
The word you were searching for is sexist. I've been saying since the initial article that this might be unconstitutional under Bostock v. Clayton County.
This is how america is destroying its youth and their future just because they refuse to comply with their racist demands. This is how the entire world sees america.
Well have fun judging an entire country based on a shit tier school in one of our most shit tier red states. What utopia free of all racism are you from?
Isn't this in Texas or somewhere equally as shitty? They would have sent him to prison for his hair if they could have. School to prison pipeline is real.
Texas passed the CROWN-act to combat hair-based racial discrimination because that very same school already lost two cases where they discriminated black youths because of their hair.
It's baffling to me, that the US always claims to be the champion of freedom, but runs most of their education like part-time prison camps. My school here in Germany didn't give a crap about anyone's appearance. If you're street legal, you're fine in school.
Well, it’s because they have to prepare us for prison as an adult. Wait until you find out that American schools are largely funded by property taxes. Which means rich neighborhoods that pay more in property taxes have generally way better schools than poor neighborhoods.
The United States is like a villain from a scooby doo episode. In every episode the “monster” is a person of color, or illegal immigrant, or an LGBTQ person. But when they catch the “monster” and pull its mask off. It’s old man US government every god damn time.
That's because you were raised to be a functioning member of society with enough tools to potentially succeed or excel.
They were raised to fail upward while grifting and scamming on the side while fighting for the opportunity to be a wageslave and entering a lottery to be successful. Or risk prison and become an actual slave as allowed in their constitution.
In an Episode of the Youtube series Under the Blacklight, David Blight, a Yale professor brought something up that I think brings the American idea of "freedom" into a different context. He says “This whole new idea of what’s liberty and liberty for whom, can also kill. Especially when it replaces the idea of Liberty as that which has to be shared in some kind of common good.”
The idea isn't really new and is actually deeply rooted in America's past through to it's creation. Freedom should be a group concept in which we maximize freedom for the populace. Instead it's seen as individual freedom only. When you combine this with the idea that freedom is the most important thing, it results in people coming to the conclusion that they are justified in anything in the process of attaining what they want. And they'll use whatever tools they have available to attain this in as straight a path as they can.
America has always been a champion of personal freedom, whatever they say. It's founding was about a bunch of business men who didn't want to pay taxes so they staged a rebellion. There's still a heavy bent against taxes with the main argument being people don't want the government to have any power, but really it's because individuals just want to keep their money while disregarding the ways in which that money would improve the good for all people. At it's core America is a Selfish nation built of selfishness and getting yours before someone else takes it.
It gets more a little complicated when talking about motives of those in power, but boils down to the same, and they retain that power primarily by banging the "personal freedoms" drum.
To quote famed Discworld philosopher Granny Weatherwax,
"There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That's what sin is."
"It's a lot more complicated than that--"
"No. It ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts."
"Oh, I'm sure there are worse crimes--"
"But they starts with thinking about people as things..."
They are being authoritarian, likely your country was also under an authoritarian regime in the past based on what you're saying. Systems of economy are kinda separate
Not remotely communist nor were the folks in "your country" communists regardless of what anyone claims. Always apply the "Is North Korea really a Democracy" test to any such labeling.
There it is, that's the entire purpose of the modern education system, to beat us into submission to arbitrary socioeconomic roles, to curtail independence and creativity, rendering us fodder for corporate masters. Mind all the rules and maybe tomorrow you'll get the extra nice table scraps.
Good for them not complying, they literally harmed nobody including themselves. The suspension is clearly a punitive measure to heal the administration's wounded pride, which is also an essential aspect of the education system.
... Do you really believe all that you just wrote here? Because that is just conspiracy theory level nonsense.
Yes, this school, and likely toianynoyhers too many others (typing at night is fun) have a bunch of asshole administrators that feel the need to show who's in charge. That doesn't mean all education is to shape us into slaves. Chill dude.
Toianynoyhers. That might be the most egregious typo I've ever seen. I'm gonna hazard a guess at "too many others"? Hope I'm right, I've got $10 riding on it.
Here's the weird part. The Texas State Legislature JUST passed a law making this kind of discrimination illegal. I don't know what this school is doing. It's like they want to pay lawyers
I just have this feeling that they just created an activist/future politician with this stupid stunt. They'll forget tomorrow. He'll probably remember the rest of their life and fight for racial justice his whole life.
Yea idk, being a bad student doesn’t mean the school should be able to dictate your haircut (as long as you aren’t having a hygiene problem. Young man looks fine in this photo).
Kinda hard to get a good education when the whole system is holding you back. Even if this kid had actual behavior problems, whose fault do you really think that is, the parents that are fighting for him or the system that is actively against him, trying to physically mutilate his identity, and seems to be putting him on a fast track to a for-profit prison?
Texas, in this case, is actually siding with the student through the CROWN-Act that was specifically adopted because of court cases over hairstyles that damn school already lost before.
Can't imagine my school making international news, especially with something as pathetic. It reads like a bad Onion article. Barber High having a strict hair code? WTF. And this story goes for months, and it's not the first time, and it's real. How? Everything screams stupid fiction there, and yet that's what happens in a small town in Texas. Idk if they did that out of racism or boredom, but come on, I read about this comical idiocy from the opposite side of the globe. I can't imagine what's going through the mind of this school's admin.
Out of curiosity, how are the students and his peers taking it? Apathetic? Indifferent? Upset? Protesting?
I have been trying to get a better understanding of your generation as I am working with a lot of Gen Z right now. Sometimes I am frustrated when it comes to, at least to me, a lack of technological skills, but that isn't what I am really asking. I just wonder how things look socially.
The other day I was walking into a bar with my partner. We're white, straight-passing, generally clean looking folk. The bar had a sign on it that said "No bandanas, no gang colors". They were wearing a bandana, and my t-shirt was blue, but I couldn't help but notice that we were able to walk into that bar, be served and settle our tab at the end of the night.
It's about selective enforcement. You can't say "No black people", so you say "no black people stuff". Or you make something everyone does illegal and then give the people in charge broad leeway as to when they can choose to ignore it. Or you set up situations that aren't open in their racism but just so happen to target one group over another, like setting up checks on the Mexican border and then claiming you're not targeting latino people because if you happen to catch white illegal immigrants you'll deport them too. In the words of Republican party strategist Lee Atwater (trigger warning: just lots of open, blatant racism and n-bombs)
spoiler
You start out in 1954 by saying, “Ngger, ngger, ngger.” By 1968 you can’t say “ngger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Ngger, ngger.”:::
For those who come looking later it's a feature for the web frontend but wrt mobile apps Boost for Lemmy at least makes an absolute mess of both the spoiler tag and the asterisk as a standard character. The bold text, however, is my own emphasis and I believe the part that needs emphasized.
I really cannot stand this shit, I remember back in school we had to have approved hairstyles and uniform rules, it was all bs to me. None of that really had any corelation to how good a student was.
Ah yes, lets punish and humiliate a person for expressing a completely harmless form of individuality at point in their lives where individuality is exceedingly important for healthy development. This won't have any negative consequences at all.
I'm the whitest dude you ever saw, and it's even obvious to me: black hair is different, at a molecular level. You can't mindlessly apply grooming standards to people who are not the same, physically. Not better, not worse (obviously), just different. These people are racist.
They're not doing him a favor by sending him to whatever passes for a "disciplinary alternative education program" in Texas though. Sounds like they're trying to stick him on the fast track in the school-to-prison pipeline.
Each place has its rules, follow them or gtfo. I don't see a problem here. Schools are not fashion halls.
When I was in school, we weren't allowed long hair, any alt hair style, using gels or other materials to style our hair etc ...
People here dont seem to understand the principles behind education. Black teachers, whoever needs to enforce the styles so be it, but the component of adherence to uniform presentation (without compromising human individuality and genetic differences) is a robust and important part of teaching children how to conform to society, and in some instances learn that sometimes individuality has to be sacrificed for the good of a functioning society. The racism component is nonexistent in this example if you read the backstory.
Please also remember - if I'm wrong, I'm happy to discuss or learn something. Just upvoting views that you agree with is not a productive exercise.
Hair and presentation is a largely arbitrary proxy for wider adherence to rules and societal behaviours. School uniforms are, last I checked shown to work in this regard. If you have a giant pink pile of hair to draw attention to yourself, it flies in the face of the lesson of conformity.
If you only think in extremes of course - you could also infer order of any kind leads to nazis with that mindset, which is of course, ridiculous. There is a line for conformity, and it should be established with buy in from everyone.
It does seem this has risen to the level of "free speech" and I suspect this student will get an education in constitutional law, as well as a fat settlement for his trouble.