For greater than a month, Darryl George, a Black highschool student in Texas, spent each and every college day sitting by way of himself in punishment over his hairstyle. This week, he was once despatched to a separate disciplinary program, the place he is been advised he’s going to spend a number of extra weeks clear of classmates.
In an interview with The Associated Press, George mentioned he has felt discouraged about lacking out on his categories and time with the soccer workforce.
“I feel like I’m missing my full experience of being in the classroom,” George mentioned Thursday.
George, 18, was once first pulled from the school room at his Houston-area college in August after college officers mentioned his locs fell beneath his eyebrows and ear lobes and violated the district’s get dressed code. His circle of relatives argues his hairstyle does now not ruin any laws.
By the time George is authorized to go back to Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, in November, he’s going to have overlooked 56 of 67 days of normal lecture room instruction to get started his junior 12 months. The circle of relatives has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging the state failed to implement a new legislation outlawing discrimination in line with hairstyles.
But the circle of relatives mentioned George isn’t taking a look to alternate faculties. They need to take a stand at a college that has clashed previously with other Black male students over their hairstyles.
“We have to stand, and we have to let them know that, ‘No, Darryl’s not cutting his hair. No, Darryl is not going to let this go. No, you’re not going to run Ms. George and her family out of their neighborhood,’” mentioned Candice Matthews, a civil rights activist who is working as a spokesperson for the circle of relatives.
After George spent weeks on in-school suspension, his circle of relatives gained a letter from the varsity foremost referring him to the disciplinary program for the get dressed code violations and different transgressions: violating the tardy coverage, disrupting the in-school suspension lecture room and now not complying with college directives.
Barbers Hill Superintendent Greg Poole mentioned Friday in an electronic mail to the AP that officers can’t expose the infractions that led to George’s present placement, but it surely was once now not as a result of his hair.
George’s mom, Darresha George, mentioned he as soon as used a profanity to categorical frustration with the in-school suspension. The circle of relatives mentioned George additionally has had two tardy violations. But they see the refusal to lower his hair as the foundation of the problem.
“They are retaliating and that’s all that this is,” mentioned Allie Booker, the circle of relatives’s lawyer.
George on Thursday attended his first day on the disciplinary college, the place he sits in a cubicle and does schoolwork. He is authorized breaks however will have to keep throughout the room. He is ready to engage with lecturers in this system, however he seems like he is falling at the back of.
“I’m just not learning what they’re trying to teach me,” he mentioned.
School techniques in Texas have extensive discretion over which offenses may end up in scholars being despatched to disciplinary selection teaching programs, mentioned Renuka Rege of Texas Appleseed, a social justice advocacy group. But she mentioned it might be strange for a student to be transferred over a get dressed code violation.
“If a district wants to be really, really harsh, then they can lay that out in their code of conduct,” Rege mentioned. “There’s a lot of districts here in Texas that still very much have a zero-tolerance mindset.”
Dress code and hair violations disproportionately affect students of color, said Ashley Sawyer, senior staff attorney at the Advancement Project, a civil rights advocacy organization. She said students are pressured to conform to standards that may not factor in their culture and heritage, such as wearing natural hair.
George’s family has filed two religious exemptions for his hair. One was denied and they are awaiting a response to their second request, Booker said.
Men in the family going back generations have had locs. The hairstyle has cultural and religious importance, Darresha George said.
Darryl’s mother said her son’s discipline is not just affecting him at school, but behind closed doors as well.
“Nobody can see the pain. Nobody can see the hurt. Nobody can see the tears. I have to see this. I have to see the way he gets up in the morning, the way he doesn’t want to endure the day. It weighs on me as his mother because I have to see my child go through this,” she mentioned via tears.
Darryl George said he hopes to return to how things were.
“I hope I can start being a kid again, start living my life, start playing football again and enjoy my year, my last few years in high school,” he said.
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Mumphrey reported from Phoenix and Ma reported from Washington D.C.
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