Texas High Schooler Suspended Over Locs Continues Facing Punishment

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 continues to face punishment for his refusal to cut his locs. He has been returned to in-school suspension after being se nt to an alternative school for a month.

According to NBC News, Darryl George has already spent most of the school year dealing with this dress code issue, which has kept him from joining his classmates regularly. After returning to Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, he was immediately suspended again, with the school saying his hairstyle does not abide by its dress code policy.

His family remains adamant that George is well within his rights to wear his hair in the traditionally Black hairstyle, and says the school district’s policy is discriminatory and violates the CROWN Act in the state. That legislation prohibits discrimination based on hairstyles traditionally worn based on one’s racial background.

Despite the family’s claims, the school argues that the CROWN Act never specified discrimination based on hair length and that the disciplinary action against George is 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 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.