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If you had a nickel for each time Barber Hill High School had to go to court because they wanted a student to chop off their locs you’d only have two nickels, but it would still be pretty weird. The first time was in 2020 when they demanded De’Andre Arnold cut off his set. Darryl George was their next target — he was told to cut his hair last year. The silver lining was that Texas passed the CROWN Act a day later. Motivated in part by the hassle the school gave De’Andre, the law was meant to prevent hair policies that were racial discrimination by proxy. Darryl’s family sued the school under it for requiring him to shave his locs, but the school responded that their policy was colorblind because it only policed length. The judge sided with the school.
From CBS News:
“The Texas legal system has validated our position that the district’s dress code does not violate the CROWN Act and that the CROWN Act does not give students unlimited self-expression,” Dr. Poole said. “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.”
Of all the things the SFFA v. Harvard decision has been used as a bludgeon against, I didn’t expect hair styles to be on the list. That said, It would be strange if, after the Texas CROWN Act is amended to include length as a protected aspect of hair, De’Andre is allowed to have long hair while his white male classmates cannot. There is a possible world where the school’s hair length policy is invalidated on the basis that it discriminates on the basis of sex, but unless Edward Blum has a change of heart it will be a lot harder to lobby money to sue on account of sex discrimination.
Texas School Did Not Violate CROWN Act By Suspending Darryl George For Hairstyle, Judge Rules [CBS News]
Earlier: The CROWN Act Is Gearing Up For Its Next Phase In The Senate
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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