A federal judge did not issue an immediate ruling on Thursday after hearing legal arguments over whether to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a black high school student who claimed racial and gender discrimination in his Texas school district’s months-long punishment for refusing to change his hairstyle.
Darryl George, 18, has not attended his regular Houston-area high school classes since August 31 because the Barbers Hill district believes his hair length violates its dress code.
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The district claims that George’s long hair, which he wears to school in tied and twisted locs on top of his head, violates school policy since it would fall below his shirt collar, brows, or earlobes if let down. Other pupils with locs comply with the length policy, according to the district.
Last year, Darryl George and his mother, Darresha George, filed a federal civil rights complaint against the school system, the superintendent, his principal and assistant principal, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The lawsuit contends that the defendants participated in or failed to prevent racial and gender discrimination against George as a result of his continued punishment for his hairdo.
“I’m just glad we’re here. We eventually arrived here. This is another stepping stone we must cross.” It’s been a long road, and we’ll just keep fighting,” Darresha George said during Thursday’s court session.
The action claims that George’s punishment also violates the CROWN Act, a new state statute that outlaws race-based hair discrimination. The CROWN Act, which went into effect in September, prohibits employers and schools from punishing people because of their hair texture or protective hairstyles, such as Afros, braids, locs, twists, or Bantu knots.
The lawsuit asserts the abuse of George’s First Amendment rights to free speech and expression. George, a junior, has spent the majority of the school year either on in-school suspension at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu or in an off-site disciplinary program.
On Thursday, George’s attorney, Allie Booker, informed U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown that the district’s policy is discriminatory and not race-neutral. Booker said that the school system granted religious exemptions for hair length but failed to comply with the CROWN Act by not providing race-based protections.
Booker also claimed that the school system lacked clearly defined policies that explained why females may have long hair but boys could not.
Brown inquired whether there was any case law that showed hair length is protected as expressive conduct under the First Amendment. Booker stated that she had not identified any, but George’s action is a precedent-setting case, and self-expression in the form of a hairstyle does not have to be strictly related to religious belief in order to be protected by the law.
“It’s not about hair length; it’s about accepting everyone in the same way,” Booker remarked following the court hearing.
Jonathan Brush, an attorney for the Barbers Hill school district, consistently informed Brown that the district’s policy is race-neutral and that George’s claim did not demonstrate a sufficient pattern of racial discrimination by the district.
Brush stated that having varying hair length regulations for males and girls “does not constitute discrimination” and that the district’s hair length policy would “pass muster” in business and the military.
Brush further argued that the student’s failure to show how “his hairstyle communicates a message to the world” did not violate George’s First Amendment rights.
Darresha George has stated that her son’s hairdo has cultural and religious significance for him. According to historians, braids and other hairstyles are culturally significant to many African Americans.
Brown indicated that he was inclined to dismiss Abbott and Paxton from the complaint, as well as some of the claims brought against the superintendent and school administrators. He promised to provide a definitive ruling at a later date.
In February, a state judge concluded in the school district’s case that the punishment does not violate the CROWN Act.
Two more pupils challenged Barbers Hill’s hair regulation in a May 2020 federal lawsuit. Both pupils left the high school, but one returned after a federal judge granted a temporary injunction, citing “a substantial likelihood” of violating his rights to free speech and freedom from racial discrimination if expelled. That litigation is still pending.
George declined to comment following Thursday’s hearing. Booker stated that “Darryl’s a little sad” since he is having problems finding a job for the summer.
“He’s just afraid that some of the people who don’t agree with this case will hold it against him as they have,” Booker stated.
