After serving more than a month of in-school suspension over his dreadlocks, a Black student in Texas was told he will be removed from his high school and sent to a disciplinary alternative education program on Thursday.
Darryl George, 18, is a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu and has been suspended since Aug. 31. He will be sent to EPIC, an alternative school program, from Oct. 12 through Nov. 29 for “failure to comply” with multiple campus and classroom regulations, the principal said in a Wednesday letter provided to The Associated Press by the family.
Principal Lance Murphy wrote that George has repeatedly violated the district’s “previously communicated standards of student conduct." The letter also says that George will be allowed to return to regular classroom instruction on Nov. 30 but will not be allowed to return to his high school’s campus until then unless he’s there to discuss his conduct with school administrators.
Barbers Hill Independent School District prohibits male students from having hair extending below the eyebrows, ear lobes or top of a T-shirt collar, according to the student handbook. Additionally, hair on all students must be clean, well-groomed, geometrical and not an unnatural color or variation. The school does not require uniforms.
George’s mother, Darresha George, and the family’s attorney deny the teenager’s hairstyle violates the dress code. The family last month filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency and a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state’s governor and attorney general, alleging they failed to enforce a new law outlawing discrimination based on hairstyles.
The family alleges George’s suspension and subsequent discipline violate the state’s CROWN Act, which took effect Sept. 1. The law, an acronym for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is intended to prohibit race-based hair discrimination and bars employers and schools from penalizing people because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including Afros, braids, dreadlocks, twists or Bantu knots.
A federal version passed in the U.S. House last year, but was not successful in the Senate.
The school district also filed a lawsuit in state district court asking a judge to clarify whether its dress code restrictions limiting student hair length for boys violates the CROWN Act. The lawsuit was filed in Chambers County, east of Houston.
George’s school previously clashed with two other Black male students over the dress code.
Barbers Hill officials told cousins De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford they had to cut their dreadlocks in 2020. Their families sued the district in May 2020, and a federal judge later ruled the district’s hair policy was discriminatory. Their pending case helped spur Texas lawmakers to approve the state’s CROWN Act. Both students withdrew from the school, with Bradford returning after the judge’s ruling.
link: https://www.aol.com/news/black-student-suspended-over-hairstyle-220842177.html
Maybe try teaching the guy more, and caring about his hair less.
But that completely defeats the purpose! (which is the racism)
So… Where is the catalog of approved haircuts for students to pick from? Fucking fascist ideas being masked in bullshit like avoiding fake “distractions” in classrooms.
I’d like to see a catalog of edge cases that would theoretically be up to code but still look outrageous.
I’m sure we could get creative here. Like, you could go with the Friar Tuck look with the top part shaved and that would be fine. I guess it depends on what they consider “geometrical”
I’m more of a Manchu queue style.
The approved hairstyles:
Principal Lance Murphy is literally just going to die on this hill apparently. Between the massive cost the school district took because of the 2020 court loss over this exact same thing, and this giant L the school district is about to take for not only being now in Violation of Federal Law but also Texas literally passed a law, because of this asshat and the 2020 loss, indicating that he’s not legally allowed to do exactly what he’s doing.
The school district also filed a lawsuit in state district court asking a judge to clarify whether its dress code restrictions limiting student hair length for boys violates the CROWN Act
Which if you are unsure if your policy is violating a law or not, you should likely not have the policy until the court gives you more clarity. Because if the Courts do indeed indicate that the school is in violation of Texas’ CROWN Act, they’ve just handed this kid millions of dollars in restitution, which I guess they can just pile on top of the millions this school district has blown so far on litigation.
You would think that at some point taxpayers would be up in arms, but nope it’s Texas, blowing billions on stupid lawsuits is their thing.
How does a previous case not automatically make the current situation unacceptable? Do they have to retry the exact same situation over and over again?
Because principal is a bully and willing to use his powers to destroy lives. The methods to protect people are very slow and so he gets away with it for years until the district loses a major lawsuit. Then he quietly gets reassigned or retires and we pretend the entire thing never happened.
Bully and Bigot, a very iconic duo.
I don’t trust principals
On principle?
A previous case is certainly a good argument in court, however the opposition may be able to argue material differentiating circumstances that may not be immediately obvious (in general, not in this case). That is why it isn’t considered an automatic win.
To be fair being racist has long been a winning strategy in Texas so you can imagine that their bag of tricks isn’t particularly deep in matters like this
blowing billions on stupid lawsuits is their thing.
That and blowing money on highschool football stadiums.
And apparently blowing more money bussing people out of their state.
Naw? That’s just… you know, a hobby.
I’m not a kid, but looking back on this type of situation as an adult, I’d settle for half of whatever they offer as long as the administrator(s) driving this were also banned from all public education jobs in the state, permanently. Fines to the district aren’t a deterrent to bad administration on their, but fear of job security absolutely is.
That’s our Fiscal Conservatives. Ready to spend endless money on stupid bullshit but very upset about spending that actually helps the populace.
Fuck it makes me so mad when schools make boys cut their hair. My little brother had to cut his hair that he had been growing since he was in his single digits. It was devastating. This was back in the early '00s
What is the state apparatus for if not funding private interests through frivolous lawsuits?
So their guidelines are openly discriminatory at best, and openly racist otherwise…
It’s mind-blowing how quickly the US is regressing because we’re kowtowing to a miniscule minority.
I’m openly curious how well a “liberal” minded individual who isn’t afraid to be an asshole would be received.
Largely, the problem is that the far-right shows up.
No matter how tiny the power grab, they’ll have someone there to grab it, often unopposed.
The problem is largely the structure of our democracy. The left shows up, they showed up more in the last decade than they ever have. And we’re still sliding backward.
Because the way our idiotic system works, the number of people that show up matter less than the zip code they show up in.
I’d love to see what a liberal asshole politician would look like, but i can’t see it working out today. As much as the right blows wokeism out of proportion, PC culture is still a thing in a lot of liberal areas, and if you’re not PC as a liberal politician I imagine you’ll offend the more sensitive parts of your own base. Didn’t Bernie Sanders get hit with some of that? And he wasn’t even that assholeish, he just showed a spine.
Ilhan Omar’s treatment of a woman asking for her political support in opposition to female genital mutilation was pretty close to being a liberal asshole politician (or it revealed her to be trying to have her cake and eat it; namely, that she takes positions designed to get liberal support, and simultaneously strategically acts like a regressive when it comes to FGM to get support from African hijabis and other Islamists).
I’m openly curious how well a “liberal” minded individual who isn’t afraid to be an asshole would be received.
Carlin died an old man rich and successful
I’m openly curious how well a “liberal” minded individual who isn’t afraid to be an asshole would be received.
Speaking from experience here, people will actively, and sometimes collectively, attack you for it. They’ll gang up on you online. They’ll openly and often violently bully you in real life. They’ll even abuse the legal system to get rid of you if they are angry enough at you.
Being an asshole towards shitty people (and the vast majority of humans are shitty people, myself included) is very VERY enlightening on how our rights and our laws are just a thin veneer covering what really governs our lives, and that is our feelings. Most humans could give a fuck less about logic, facts or the truth; they only care about their emotions and what they want because they are only connected to the real world through their emotions, not their minds.
Humans are no better than base animals and being willing to be a horrifying House-level dick towards those you think are deserving demonstrates this, really handily.
It doesn’t surprise me that poor young man was forced to go to an alternate school where the diploma he’ll get won’t be as respected by the colleges he’ll apply to. He probably told them off for being so blatantly racist and, in their hurt, they kicked him out.
Are we kowtowing to a miniscule minority? The only kowtowing I personally observe are academic institutions within states with GOP-dominated legislatures and courts. K-12 schools in progressive areas within such states have to tread carefully to keep the man off their back, and public universities have to carefully craft their language relating to research and programs. But largely it’s a semantic game, where the substance doesn’t change but the language used is toned down to avoid attention of asshats. Similar to any research related to human sexuality when there’s a Republican president in the White House and the NIS/NIH leadership is dominated by GOP appointees - they don’t change the research, but they absolutely rework the language used to describe the project.
Pure, unadulterated racism.
Fuck, dude, that is painfully racist of the school.
What a shithole.
Hope he gets into a college as far away as possible.
It’s baffling to me, that the US always claims to be the champion of freedom, but runs most of their education like part-time prison camps. My school here in Germany didn’t give a crap about anyone’s appearance. If you’re street legal, you’re fine in school.
Well, it’s because they have to prepare us for prison as an adult. Wait until you find out that American schools are largely funded by property taxes. Which means rich neighborhoods that pay more in property taxes have generally way better schools than poor neighborhoods.
The United States is like a villain from a scooby doo episode. In every episode the “monster” is a person of color, or illegal immigrant, or an LGBTQ person. But when they catch the “monster” and pull its mask off. It’s old man US government every god damn time.
That’s because you were raised to be a functioning member of society with enough tools to potentially succeed or excel.
They were raised to fail upward while grifting and scamming on the side while fighting for the opportunity to be a wageslave and entering a lottery to be successful. Or risk prison and become an actual slave as allowed in their constitution.
Ooh! I’ve got a thing about this!
In an Episode of the Youtube series Under the Blacklight, David Blight, a Yale professor brought something up that I think brings the American idea of “freedom” into a different context. He says “This whole new idea of what’s liberty and liberty for whom, can also kill. Especially when it replaces the idea of Liberty as that which has to be shared in some kind of common good.”
The idea isn’t really new and is actually deeply rooted in America’s past through to it’s creation. Freedom should be a group concept in which we maximize freedom for the populace. Instead it’s seen as individual freedom only. When you combine this with the idea that freedom is the most important thing, it results in people coming to the conclusion that they are justified in anything in the process of attaining what they want. And they’ll use whatever tools they have available to attain this in as straight a path as they can.
America has always been a champion of personal freedom, whatever they say. It’s founding was about a bunch of business men who didn’t want to pay taxes so they staged a rebellion. There’s still a heavy bent against taxes with the main argument being people don’t want the government to have any power, but really it’s because individuals just want to keep their money while disregarding the ways in which that money would improve the good for all people. At it’s core America is a Selfish nation built of selfishness and getting yours before someone else takes it.
It gets more a little complicated when talking about motives of those in power, but boils down to the same, and they retain that power primarily by banging the “personal freedoms” drum.
To quote famed Discworld philosopher Granny Weatherwax,
“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.” “It’s a lot more complicated than that–” “No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.” “Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes–” “But they starts with thinking about people as things…”
Thank you for coming to my TED talk
I generally agree that that freedom in the US is mostly seen as ‘my personal right to do anything I want’.
But that’s exactly what is being restricted here. An individual’s personal freedom to wear the hairstyle they want.
So how does that explain the restrictiveness of US schools?Because it’s bad even by our standards.
Because that individual doesn’t have the power to enforce their personal freedom. The Principal does have the power to enforce their idea of what the “correct” look is. The principal isn’t concerned about raising conditions for the group in actuality, they just want reality to conform to their idea of what they desire it to be. For them, it’s within their rights to their own freedom to bring everything that makes them uncomfortable to heel. Anything that they don’t like is an affront to their personal freedom to make everyone do what they want.
My school here in Germany didn’t give a crap about anyone’s appearance.
Tell that to the French who ban all religious symbols
Good, religion has no place on a public education setting.
Not relevant. You don’t have less rights to free expression when skydaddy is involved.
Except skydaddy psychos think they do have more rights to impose their rules and beliefs over others, which is an active attack to other’s rights. So no, on publicly funded institutions, skydaddy has no place and shouldn’t be allowed in.
Really? Did you interview each and every single one? I was a theist and I had zero interest in doing that.
Sorry you don’t believe in freedom of expression
Get out of here with your stupid “freedumb of eshpreshon!” Separation of church and state is a pillar of democratic, tolerant and peaceful societies. That means, no religion in public schools. No one is stopping anyone from being as religious and practice whatever they want in their home, or even in public on the street. But as soon as they put a feet on a publicly funded institution, they must abide by the law above all. Not the mandates of their imaginary friend. Freedom of expression doesn’t mean free from public responsibility.
Man this is one school run by just a few people, all it takes is one goofy bastard to suspend a student. This isn’t an “US” issue
Yeah, because this is the one case where this happened. Never before and nowhere else.
My school had a uniform for about two years before they gave up on it. Of course, like everything else they did, they failed to plan.
I live two states over from Texas (a little over 1000 miles). Let’s look at what is happening about a 1000 miles from Germany. Oh actual prison camps and war? Wow I thought Europe was all about freedom, but I guess not. That’s how childish them saying it’s an all US issue sounds.
US motherfuckers celebrating being better than an actual war zone
It isn’t celebrating. It is pointing out that saying all of the US is like this is the same as saying all of Europe is a war zone.
A lot of the US is like that tho
Your entire country is smaller than Texas. It isn’t about all of the US. That’s silly. In most any other state, he would be fine. Texas really sucks, but it is not representative of the US.
This doesn’t make a lot of sense in context, sure Texas has twice the land of Germany, but Germany has 2.5 times the population of Texas.
Though I agree Texas is likely not representative of all the USA.
So, Germany has the population of Texas + Florida + Georgia? Doesn’t sound that large.
And the population for this town is less than 8000. So it is even less representative of a country of over 330 million or whetever it is at now. Again, all I am pointing out is that trying to say “all of the US is like this” doesn’t make sense.
Please shut the fuck up with this “but the US is big” excuse for every single topic, it doesn’t explain or excuse anything at all
It is putting into context that what one town in one state does is not representative of the entire country. The US has plenty of issues, but to say that all of the US is like this town of less than 8000 people is absurd.
Except my public school growing up tried a uniform as well. Stop making excuses, this isn’t a black swan event this is the mole that suggests cancer.
I’m hearing these and similar stories from all over the country.
It’s not just about schools, either, but also colleges and education in general. And if you think about it, a lot of life too. Jaywalking for example. That’s a crime that simply does not exist elsewhere.
It’s just hair. Why is the school district so interested in restricting hairstyles?
It’s not just hair though. It’s the fact that a black student challenged a decision they’ve made.
Specifically, it seems the school was explicitly told to target a single student in order for opening a way for the Governor to challenge the CROWN act in courts. It’s pure political maneuvering. Picking scapegoats and destroying individuals to advance racists agendas.
I can hear the shrieks of “uppity” from over here.
You know why.
Looks like it’s part of a uniform requirement. It’s part of the “make them all look the same, that will stop bad behavior”.
Public school shouldn’t be that way and it’s stupid in general. I went to “management school” for most of my middle school years and they did that to stop kids from fighting over colors and shit. Kinda made sense there though because we were all “bad apples”.
I’m wondering if there’s more going on but the story is focusing on the most absurd detail. Its America though so I wouldn’t be surprised either way.
This is how america is destroying its youth and their future just because they refuse to comply with their racist demands. This is how the entire world sees america.
Especially non-white youth. These ‘rules’ are designed specifically as a bludgeon to use against poc.
But I was told America is the land of the free. Have I been misinformed?
Whoever told you that is your enemy.
best reference i’ve ever witnessed
The finger to the land of the chains
You’re perfectly free to do things exactly as you’re told. Capiche?
It’s just the accent, it’s actually: “land of the fee, home of the brave racist.”
Land of the fee, home of the slave.
They don’t want to be communists and they’re literally doing what the communists in my country used to do
They want to be authoritarians, whatever flavor they have to be to have power.
They don’t want anyone else to have power over them.
So when they’re in the out group, they’ll ramp up the persecution narrative, and when they’re in power, they’ll ruthlessly repress everyone else.
All makes internal sense, if you’re an asshole.
Not remotely communist nor were the folks in “your country” communists regardless of what anyone claims. Always apply the “Is North Korea really a Democracy” test to any such labeling.
Imagine being sent to the school with all the unruly and undisciplined kids because of your hairstyle. Crazy and so fucking racist.
Isn’t this in Texas or somewhere equally as shitty? They would have sent him to prison for his hair if they could have. School to prison pipeline is real.
Texas passed the CROWN-act to combat hair-based racial discrimination because that very same school already lost two cases where they discriminated black youths because of their hair.
For once Texas is on the right side.
Ironic of this story to come out of a place called “Barbers” highschool. They take their haircuts pretty damn seriously up on that hill.
I hope the family successfully destroys the finances of the people involved in these super racist decisions.
Usually it’s taxpayers money.
And in this case it shouldn’t be.
It won’t, it’s not a racist policy. The people enforcing it probably are but if anything it’s a homophobic policy
The problem is hair length not hair style
Though some religious beliefs prevent cutting hair so there may be something there
Time for the students to protest by having hair that isn’t “acceptable.” I imagine suspending most of the students won’t go over well
What does geometric even mean? Cubes? Dodecahedrons?
Can we call it a dodecahedron-o-do?
Edit: kids should start styling their hair into cubes, in protest. “The rules say it must be geometrical!”
I think they mean you gotta have a hairstyle that looks like it was directly pulled from a N64 era video game
wait… n64 characters weren’t all just bald…?
Basically, take Ramiel’s hairstyle as an example.
