Black Texas Teen Forced to Leave School District After Refusing to Cut Hair

A Black high school student in Texas, who was given back-to-back in-school suspensions at the start of this school year and transferred out of the district because his mental health was suffering, requested a federal judge's assistance in getting him back to the school to complete his senior year.

The first two days of this school year, Darryl George, 18, was sent to in-school suspension for violating the school's hair policy. Although he wears it in tied and twisted locs on top of his head, KFOR reported that school officials claimed it would be too long if he let it down.

Allie Booker, one of George's attorneys, said sitting in back-to-back suspensions has caused her client "significant emotional distress, ultimately leading to a nervous breakdown."

"As a result, we had no choice but to remove him from the school environment," Allie Booker, one of George's attorneys, noted. She added that George's departure "was not a matter of choice but of survival" and he wishes to return to the district his mother intentionally moved to for his education.

George filed a request for a temporary restraining order to prevent district officials from further punishing him for his hair. In an affidavit filed last month, KFOR reported George pleaded that the judge help him so that he "can attend school like a normal teenage student."

George's restraining order request is scheduled for an Oct. 3 hearing.

In the meantime, a federal lawsuit George and his mother filed last year will continue to proceed. The lawsuit accused the school district of committing racial and gender discrimination by forcing the student to miss classes while he endured in-school suspension for most of the 2023-24 school year.

The judge struck down the racial discrimination allegation but allowed the gender discrimination claim to stand because he questioned whether the school district's hair length rule causes more harm than good.

Per KFOR, the George family's lawsuit also stated that his punishment violated the CROWN Act, a state law that took effect in September 2023 and prohibits race-based discrimination of hair. A state judge ruled in February, however, in a lawsuit filed by the school district, that the punishment doesn't violate the CROWN Act.