Parents of black Texas teens sue school district over 'discriminatory hair policy'
1 / 2The parents of two black Texas teenagers, who said they were suspended for wearing their hair in locs, are suing the school district and others over what they describe as a"discriminatory hair policy."
"The U.S. Constitution allows a school board the right to implement local community expectations, and Barbers Hill ISD’s continual academic and extra-curricular successes are a direct result of our communities’ high expectations," the statement said.The suit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Houston, alleges race and gender discrimination and that the hair policy infringed upon the constitutional rights of DeAndre and his cousin, Kaden, 16, identified as K.B.
Story continuesDeAndre, whose father is from Trinidad, has said he has worn dreadlocks for years like a lot of men in his family, and that he always followed the school's dress code by tying them up.
The lawsuit asserts that black students are and have been disproportionately targeted and penalized for violating"facially race-neutral grooming policies that are designed to, and have the effect of, profiling, singling out, and burdening" black children for wearing their hair in its natural state, including in locs. It notes that the school district is 69 percent white and 3 percent black.
The lawsuit says the students were faced with the"impossible choice of either suppressing their cultural heritage" and black identity by cutting their natural hair or forfeiting their right to equal educational and extracurricular opportunities.
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Parents of black Texas teens sue school district over 'discriminatory hair policy''The length of locs have no bearing on students' capacity to learn, yet these wholly arbitrary grooming policies limit the mobility of Black children in public and private spaces...and strike at the freedom and dignity of Black people,' the lawsuit states.
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