TEXAS – After nearly two years, the legal battle between a Black student who was disciplined over his hair while attending school in Barbers Hill ISD is now over.
On July 24, a federal judge dismissed the case in favor of Barber Hill ISD, which means the case is permanently closed, and Darryl George will not be able to file the same lawsuit again.
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In 2023, George, who was a junior at Barber Hills High School in Mont Belvieu at the time, was suspended after school officials said his dreadlocks fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violated the district’s dress code.
George ended up in a legal battle with the district and spent nearly all of his junior year in in-school suspension and ultimately decided to leave the district in his senior year.
The district said that George’s long hair, which he wore to school tied and twisted locs on top of his head, violated its policy because, if let down, it would have fallen below his shirt collar, eyebrows or earlobes. The district said other students with locs complied with the length policy.
George’s federal lawsuit alleged that his punishment violated the CROWN Act, a state law prohibiting race-based discrimination of hair.
The CROWN Act, which was being discussed before the dispute over George’s hair and which took effect in September 2023, bars employers and schools from penalizing people because of hair texture or protective hairstyles, including Afros, braids, locs, twists or Bantu knots.
Last year, a judge dismissed most of the claims in George’s lawsuit against the district. The judge dismissed claims that George’s due process rights under the 14th Amendment were being violated. He also dropped Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, the district superintendent and other school employees from the case.
The one claim the judge left standing was an allegation of sex discrimination based on the school district’s lack of clearly defined policies on why girls could be allowed to have long hair but boys could not.