The same week his state outlawed racial discrimination based on hairstyles, a Black high school student in Texas was suspended because school officials said his locs violated the district’s dress code.
Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, received an in-school suspension after he was told his hair fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes. George, 17, wears his hair in thick twisted dreadlocks, tied on top of his head, said his mother, Darresha George.
George served the suspension last week. His mother said he plans to return to the Houston-area school Monday, wearing his dreadlocks in a ponytail, even if he is required to attend an alternative school as a result.
Unless they have the exact same standards for hair length for all students, regardless of gender, that’s plainly discriminatory.
Of course, in reality, hairstyle rules are stupid. As long as it doesn’t cause a disruption (think smelly, or formed into the shape of a helicopter), whatever you wanna do with your hair is fine.
Wait, what makes “shape of a helicopter” disruptive?
If the answer is something like “outrageous style that would get too much attention”, then that sounds like the argument for a ton of these kinds of rules. The main difference would just be subjectively where the line is drawn.
I can certainly imagine a hairstyle which would block the view of other students. I know that’s not what I was originally implying with the word “disruptive,” but it’s something.
Hair shaped like a helicopter probably makes if difficult for people behind them to see.
So did beehives but those were perfectly fine for women when they were in style.
Plus it would likely blow all the papers off the desks of students around them.
I don’t think you could get away with smelly, and I don’t see a problem with any non-dangerous haircut really.
Smelly is subjective too, as someone using the proper oils for their hair could be called smelly.
Smelly has been used for properly maintained dreadlocks that are far less noticeable than Axe body spray.
I meant “smelly” in a personal hygiene kind of way, and school administration can most certainly take action to remedy a situation where a student is not hygenic.
In a very specific personal hygiene way, sure. But there are situations where you’d end up with similar complaints if a white administrator approached a non-white student.