It’s been one hell of a school year for Darryl George. Thinking the fall of 2023 would just be the first of a couple of more semesters before he graduated high school, it turned out to be a semester filled with roadblocks and struggles — all because of his hairstyle.
But it looks like the long saga of George being suspended over and over again could be coming to an end, as a Texas judge decided on Wednesday that a trial will be held next month to decide whether George can continue being suspended by his school district for refusing to change or cut his dreadlocks, according to the Associated Press.
George was suspended the same week the CROWN ACT — which is the law that prohibits race-based hair discrimination in Texas workplaces, schools, and housing policies — went into effect. Despite the suspension, George’s family has fought back against his punishment, filing a civil rights lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbot and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The school district’s dress code states, “Male students’ hair will not extend, at any time, below the eyebrows or below the ear lobes. Male students’ hair must not extend below the top of a t-shirt collar or be gathered or worn in a style that would allow the hair to extend below the top of a t-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down.”
In response to this rule, George has styled his locs in a way that allows his hair to not go below his ears. But still, the district won’t play ball.
More from the Associated Press:
“I’m glad that we are being heard, too. I’m glad that things are moving and we’re getting through this,” George said after the hearing in Anahuac, with his mother, Darresha George, standing next to him.
State District Judge Chap Cain III in Anahuac set a Feb. 22 trial in a lawsuit filed by the school district regarding whether its dress code restrictions limiting the length of boys’ hair violates the CROWN Act. The new Texas law, which took effect in September, prohibits 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.
Darresha George said she was disappointed the judge did not consider granting a temporary restraining order, which would have halted her son’s punishment until next month’s trial.
In the Wednesday court hearing, we learned that the lawmakers who co-wrote Texas’ version of the CROWN Act said that the law does protect hairstyles like George’s, according to the Associated Press.
Barbers Hill Independent School District superintendent Gregg Poole defended the district’s decision to repeatedly suspend the 18-year-old for how he wears his hair by writing a long explanation in the Houston Chronicle last week.
“Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity,” is among the controversial lines Poole write in the Chronicle.