Student’s punishment for locs did not violate Crown Act, Texas judge rules

A Texas high school did not violate the state’s new law banning race-based hair discrimination when administrators punished a Black student who refused to cut his locs, a judge ruled Thursday.

State District Judge Chap Cain III said that Barbers Hill Independent School District’s dress and grooming policy prohibiting boys’ hair from extending beyond the eyebrows, earlobes or top of the collar didn’t run afoul of the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, or Crown, Act because the new law does not specifically mention length, district lawyer Sara Leon told the Washington Post.

Barbers Hill district superintendent Greg Poole hailed the ruling.

“The CROWN Act does not give students unlimited self-expression,” Poole wrote in a statement provided to the Post, adding that after the district’s victory, he believes the Crown Act itself will face legal peril. “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.”

The decision follows a months-long battle between the school district and 18-year-old junior Darryl George, who has been punished since August when he refused to cut his hair. George and his mother allege they are facing discrimination because they are Black and George cannot maintain his chosen hairstyle if he’s forced to cut it, while district officials say their grooming policy deals with hair length, not hairstyle, and they apply it equally to all students.

Allie Booker, the George family lawyer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Post on Thursday. She told NBC News that it would be impossible for students to have hairstyles protected by the Crown Act while complying with the district’s length restrictions. She said the family plans to appeal the judge’s decision.

At least 24 states now have some version of the Crown Act, to fight discrimination that Black people have long faced at work and in school. Civil rights advocates are also scrutinizing school hair and dress codes generally, which they say have the potential to enforce outdated gender stereotypes and discriminate along racial, religious or cultural lines.

Texas’ version of the law went into effect Sept. 1. Earlier that week, school officials suspended George for refusing to cut his hair so that it conformed with the school’s dress and grooming policy. In September, George was forced to attend an alternative school where he remains enrolled.

George and his mother have argued that the locs he and the other men in the family wear are a sign of their connection to their ancestors and God. Last month, Poole, the superintendent, took out a full-page advertisement in the Houston Chronicle defending George’s punishment, writing that being “an American requires conformity,” which comes with the benefit of being unified with others.

Texas lawmakers who helped pass the bipartisan law last year told the Post that the district is violating the spirit of the Crown Act and skirting the law by arguing over hair length.

“What they’re really saying is you’ll never be able to wear (this style),” said state Rep. Ron Reynolds (D), who co-authored the Texas law, adding that some natural hairstyles need to be of a certain length to twist, braid or loc. “It’s hard to say you can wear locs, but you want them to be very short. That’s not really how it works.”

In court on Thursday, Reynolds testified on behalf of George, telling the judge that the idea of hair length was baked into the law he helped write, NBC News reported.

“Length was inferred with the very nature of the style,” Reynolds testified. “Anyone familiar knows it requires a certain amount of length” for most protective styles.

Reynolds said that politicians will push for more legislation “so that Barbers Hill cannot skirt behind a loophole” and continue to “discriminate against students,” according to NBC News.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) called the judge’s decision “a pathetic” and intentional misinterpretation of the Crown Act. She encouraged her colleagues to pass a federal version of the law.

“Black folks deserve to show up as our full selves without punishment or criminalization,” she tweeted.

In his statement, Poole argued that the district’s decision to punish George had nothing to do with race and criticized those claiming it did.

“Falsely claiming racism is worse than racism,” Poole said, “and undermines efforts to address actions that violate constitutionally protected rights.”

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Kim Bellware and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff contributed to this report.