Darryl George: Texas judge rules school district can restrict the length of male students’ natural hair
Darryl George: Texas judge rules school district can restrict the length of male students’ natural hair
A Texas judge ruled Thursday that the state’s CROWN Act does not make it unlawful for school dress codes to limit a student’s hair length.
I was a long-hair male teenager in Texas and got to experience this first-hand. Besides the frequent disparraging comments from teachers and staff, I was also kicked off the track/CC team for my hair because I "Didn't match the image the school wanted to present at athletic events." I had a 4.0GPA, was active in school activities, enrolled in all AP/Pre-AP classes, and was, most importantly, good at and enjoyed running. As a freshman I ran a 5:20 mile, 12:10 two mile, and <20min 5K and was up for varsity consideration in my sophomore year. Despite this, the coach told me, point-blank, that I could only stay on the team if I cut my hair above the ear.
My parents, pissed, yelled at every school admin they could get a meeting with to no avail. Ultimately, even the principle was impotent, apologizing for how this must be "upsetting" but saying that she couldn't do anything. Apparently the athletics coordinator who made the rule didn't report to the principle, but to the district athletics office. My parents told me they would be behind me to fight it up the chain, but I decided that the experience had ruined competetive running for me and moved on.
The enforcement of white, christian, heteronormative values to teens' hair is so insideous. It is used for racism against black teens with braids, homophobia/transphobia against queer teens who don't conform with gender stereotypes, and in my case, just to be fascist assholes to a white cis-het teen boy with long hair. Nowadays I am covered in tattoos, oscillate between long/short/natural/neon hair, and have never felt like a better representative of my institution. I am about to get my PhD, was the president of my department's graduate student association, have taught and ran summer and afterschool science programs for under-represented kids, and fought for (and gotten) better compensation for graduate employees at my school.
Fuck every petty school admin who supports this shit, I am proud of my image, I am proud of teenage me for holding onto his individuality, and I hope that any teenagers in a similar situation can feel proud of themselves too, regardless of how they express.
During an interview for an office job without contact to clients they told me I should do something about my hair because they are a conservative, family owned company and wanted to represent this.
I simply had long, clean hair in a pony tail. I walked out of there, didn't want that job and am proud of that.
Respect. No organization that demands that level of conformity is worth it. Luckily, I haven't had my hair come up as an issue ever since, and my PhD advisor actively encourages me to fuck my shit up with different colors and length. He isn't a perfect boss, but he is generally a good dude when it comes to stuff like this.
Didn't match the image the school wanted to present at athletic events."
Why US is so backwards? Why US schools are so focuced on athletic events and image?
I think this sort of thing is unfortunately all too common in conservative older generations in many countries. In Japan there are occasionally students who naturally have brown hair instead of black, and to conform to the norm they're forced to dye their hair in order to attend school.
The honest answer is because it brings in sponsorship money from local businesses who want to advertise to locals who are going to go to games, it brings in alumni money from any former student who made it big in athletics (and those who have fond memories of athletics), and it brings in money from people who think a particular team/coach is good and thus want to have their kids go there. Yes, school choice is a big enough thing that I know families who have moved so their kid is in a particular school's district.
Image is a big part of that. It's also because many well-meaning people see athletics as a way to help a student get out of being poor, offer financial mobility, etc. So athletics get pushed from many people coming from different angles.
The CROWN act explicitly prohibits school districts from restricting the length of male students' natural hair.
I'm just truly baffled by the petty vindictive vile school officials perpetrating this whole thing. But I guess it wouldn't be the first time racist school officials fight all the way to the supreme court to deny eduction to kids.
they are lauded in their communities for this behavior.
the racists band together, pat each other on the back as they shit all over humanity.
Forget it, Jake. It’s Texastown.
“The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that affirmative action is a violation of the 14th Amendment and we believe the same reasoning will eventually be applied to the CROWN Act,” he [Barbers Hill Independent School District Superintendent] said.
from the article. they'll probably try to take this to the supreme court and get it overturned.
Barbers Hill
Now that's just some serendipitous irony
So a person in a position of authority thinks he can flout the law because in the future, a court may rule his way? Well, then, anyone else can do what they want too. This moron is supposed to be a teacher?
It's been a while since I saw the original text in a thread on this same topic, but I think the issue might hinge on length specifically not being included in the law's text, but only style and such. It's obviously a malicious reading of the law, but it's also an indication of flawed legislation that should have been done correctly instead of leaving wide loopholes for people to exploit. Like, even beyond being malicious, Republicans are also just inept at the process of lawmaking. The school system and the legislature of Texas are failing this kid, but I'm not sure if the justice system is or isn't, without the text in front of me. I'm trying to track that down right now to verify.
Edit: If I'm looking at the right text, I'm not seeing length mentioned at all. Only "hairstyle" and "texture" are mentioned as descriptors really. Again, this is foolish. Is it really too much to ask for lawmakers to be explicit in the laws they create? This is like, the first thing you consider as coming up if you think about it for a few minutes.
Double edit: Also, good chance to find a more sympathetic ruling on appeal. The right judge could absolutely interpret "hairstyle" to include length. I would.
"Long hair" is a style, isn't it?
…but it's also an indication of flawed legislation that should have been done correctly instead of leaving wide loopholes for people to exploit.
So you agree with the law at the core, but it needs to be written better? Conservatives have a self-congratulatory joke they looove to trot out on things they think is a waste of government time, effort, and funds:
- “So clearly [insert city/state] has solved all the other problems, and is now legislating on [X issue].”
Imma say it really clearly. Laws around kids hair, is a waste of government time. Even at the school administrative level it’s a dumb move, because they’ll have to defend it in court. There is no good play here, aside from consent of the governed to not challenge the rules, because the rules are reasonable.
It's the exact same case, except the new kid's hair is less long and since then (literally in response to it) Texas passed the CROWN Act to make it explicit. Nothing changed to make it allowed, they just decided to keep doing it. And I'd say it's pretty safe to call the judge, who ruled against a previous federal ruling and the law explicitly added in response to the previous violation, is just another Republican racist with no concern for the law. Feels like we need a new round of federal supervision for civil rights in South.
Also, all this seems like something a journalist might want to include in a story.
Sherman should have finished the job in the south.
Also, all this seems like something a journalist might want to include in a story.
Very good callback to the previous information. Really sad what passes for journalism these days. We've lost the fourth pillar of Democracy.
Republicans : We can't tell people what guns they can or can't own! Also, cut your hair and carry that embryo to term!!!
Texas is a shithole, it's a featureless landscape dotted by cities that function like giant stripmalls
I don't like the states politics, and it's part of the reason we left, but I lived in Houston for a number of years and had a great time. It was a wonderful state with good people, great food, and we did plenty outside. Although it was definitely too hot and muggy.
But I understand that this is Lemmy and it's only black and white so if we dislike one thing about a state, everything about it has to be completely shitty.
Party of limited government my ass. They just don't want rules that prevent them from telling the peasants what to do. Stay in line peasants.
It's a district called Barbers Hill, what did you expect? /S
In all seriousness though, can we have a Sikh organization sue the bejeezus out of them, as long hair is an article of their faith, and the US Constitution has a thing or two to say about freedom of religion.
A federal judge ALREADY ruled on this. It's illegal, period.
If all else fails, they'll claim it's... unconstitutional? (Without ever reading the constitution, of course. Much like their bible.) All laws that upset their feelings, or aren't a clear win for their team, just need to be "reinterpreted" until they feel better, or their team wins.
Ah yes land of the free and us telling you what you can and can’t do
that'll teach kids the core american values for sure
This is what SMALL GOVERNMENT™ looks like, ladies and gentlemen
Yes, aren’t tthese the personal liberty folks??
Ooooh... just like they did over here in Apartheid-era South Africa!
Why do black people have to have the same hairstyles as white people?
(You don't need to answer that.)
Why does anyone's hairstyle need to be regulated?
And people rightfully laughed at North Korea having laws on accepted haircuts. But that's North Korea FFS.
The American right has lost its mind in anti-woke insanity. They are fighting windmills (literally and figuratively).
Cruelty apparently.
I don't need to, but I want to answer.
Control, it's all about control.
Control and erasing blackness. One of the many ways that they try to erase blackness. They know they can't get away with killing off black people (yet), so they satisfy themselves with doing everything they can to eradicate blackness as a culture and just make it something that someone is supposed to feel guilty about being.
I swear, 9 times out of 10, when I come across one of your posts, you're misrepresenting what's happening in order to artificially ramp up your outrage.
Nothing in the policy requires black kids to have the same haircut as white kids. The school even noted that locs are fine, but the length is not.
It's a dumb policy that should go, but injecting race into it, without showing that white guys have gotten away with having long hair, is just disingenuous.
It has been long understood that policies and actions targeting the length of hair disproportional affects Black and Hispanic people. It is about race.
The school even noted that locs are fine, but the length is not.
This is called a dog whistle.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/dog-whistle-political-meaning
Systems of oppression don't have to explicitly target a group of people in order to succeed. They can be fairly obtuse and still have the desired effect.
without showing that white guys have gotten away with having long hair
White guys in America don't have a culture heritage of growing out long hair. Whether or not White guys can get away with it is not the metric of a policy being racist. Regulating male hair length disproportionately effects White guys less and Black guys more. By disproportionately I mean, despite there being a smaller percentage of Black people in the population, Black people make up a larger percentage of people punished by hair length regulations in schools. Minorities are the target here. It's about cultural erasure.
Because both are Homo Sapiens?
I hope the kid bakrupts the superintendent with punitive damages when this is all over.
That's just not how Texas courts work.
Wish it was, but...
For real. If it was, this wouldn't have passed in the first place.
So why would this dress code not already be unconstitutional based on sex discrimination? Girls can have long hair, why not boys? The hair grows the same fucking way.
It absolutely is sex discrimination and is unconstitutional.
SJWs not gonna do anything because it is not girls who are discriminated.
the gov gonna pay for the haircuts or is this just another indirect taxation on kids.
Indirect training program for stay at home hairdressers
At a news conference outside the courthouse, Candice Matthews, a spokesperson for the family, said George had tears in his eyes as theyd left the courtroom.
She said the family is disappointed, angered and confused by the ruling.
“Darryl made this statement, and told me this straight up with tears in his eyes, ‘All because of my hair? I can’t get my education because of hair? I cannot be around other peers and enjoy my junior year, because of my hair?’”
Matthews said that George will continue to serve in-school suspension and that his attorneys plan to file for an injunction in an upcoming federal civil rights lawsuit
He has to go to school. But at school he serves in school suspension. How is that helpful? How is this young man supposed to receive a quality education? (I understand that the cruelty is the point.)
Legally I am not allowed to suggest what I think should happen to the racist fascists involved. Suffice to say it’s not pretty. ☺️
(I understand that the cruelty is the point.)
That really is the only possible explanation I can come up with.
Oh it's school jail. Because the cruelty is the point. The denial of education is the point. The oppression is the point.
I hope they all get naturally occuring stomach and bone cancer that makes the remaining days of their lives miserable. Then at the last moment, I hope they spontaneously combust and feel that burn on their way out. Nothing illegal or violent, just naturally occuring "tragedy". Fuck em.
I mean the best solution would be to put all of them, on an island somewhere where they can make all the ass backward rules they want to follow and create their terrible society to worship their orange idiot.
Preferably an island close to sea level.
How about R’lyeh?
Texas is so going backwards.
Sprinting backwards, really.
I hope a ton of people just start claiming religious exemptions.
Other than voting, that's probably the most effective way for individuals to fight this.
Plenty of biblical figures who famously had long hair.
God gave Samson superpowers for having long hair.
I sometimes half-wonder whether some of the judges in Texas might be the tiniest bit racist.
Nah man. This is just about states rights to limit the length of men's hair, the thickness of their lips, the width of their noses and the pigmentation of their skin. Nothing racist at all.
land of the free, right?
Only for the privileged
Name them, shame them. They deserve the notoriety that their racist behavior offers.
The superintendent's name is Greg Poole
The school district is Barber's Hill Independent School district
The judge is Chap B. Cain III
This is very clearly outlined in the CROWN Act. Can the student's family appeal this to a higher court?
Yes, "[a spokesman for the family] said that [the student] will continue to serve in-school suspension and that his attorneys plan to file for an injunction in an upcoming federal civil rights lawsuit."
This may be the case, but the CROWN Act has only passed in the House. It is not federal law yet, so it wouldn't provide grounds for an appeal in Texas.
This judge erred.
This particular judge has never cared about the law.
Which is why we shouldn't care about his rulings.
In January [Barbers Hill Independent School District Superintendent Greg Poole] placed a full page ad in the Houston Chronicle, arguing that “being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity"
TIL being American is actually about conformity. Thanks Texas
What a crock of shit. The state that threatened to secede no more than a month ago? A state known for its political divisiveness? A state that enacted its own anti-federal abortion stance? A state that has its own energy grid to separate itself from the federal energy grid? Unity my ass.
requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity
Sounds communist to me. Fuckin pinko Texans inflicting the horrors of big government on the people.
I wonder when they will be buying a bunch of snazzy uniforms to help with conformity.
Always has been.
Poole previously told CNN “hair length of male students is only constitutionally protected for Native American students.”
Join a tribe!
Is the limit the same for males and females?
If not, that's a clear civil rights violation and I would love to see how federal courts address this.
Keep fighting, Darryl!
Too much lead in the water.
I vote students get the choice of using a knife on any of these controlling freaks without any form of punishment.
This is an interesting one. I think this ruling may be legit, if stupid?
The CROWN act specifically says that a school can't limit access based on hair "style or texture" IF that style or texture has particular associations to that person's "race or national origin."
A blanket ban on hair longer than a certain length wouldn't violate that at face value since "longer than X inches" isn't a style or texture in and of itself, and isnt particularly associated with any race or national grouping of people?
And while certain religions prohibit cutting your hair, I think that would be a standard religious exemption, the same way you're allowed to have a "no hats" rule, even though some religions require them. That's long been upheld by the courts.
I think this is a crazy hill for the school to die on, but I think it might be within their rights to die on it? Idk though, I'd be interested to hear what other people think.
Cornrows are long and the student has them styled as they have been styled in the Americas since before the founding of the US. This ruling is in blatant disregard to the law.
Corn rows aren't inherently wrong. Tons of people have short corn rows.
And while I see your point, I think it hinges on the wording of the CROWN Act.
If the rule doesn't target a hair style or type, and is applied even handedly across all hair styles and types, I think it's probably okay?
Like, there are plenty of men's hairstyles that are more "white coded" that would certainly also be disallowed under the current rules.
I'd be curious what the actual rule was from the school as well. I know the school I went to growing up, it had to be above the bottom of your ear lobe.
Dumb, but not inherently racial I think?
They literally already lost a federal case on the exact same issue (with, surprise surprise, a pair of other Black students). The CROWN Act that is being referenced here was passed because of that past case. And "long hair" is a style, and one with particular relevance to some cultures (some Native Americans and in the past case the student's family from Trinidad).
They're not sticklers to the rules, they're just racists echoing the racists of the past by policing and restricting non-white hair styles.