Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair

On May 27, 2023, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law the CROWN Act, found at section 25.902 of the Texas Education Code. CROWN is an acronym for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. The Act took effect September 1, 2023. The legislation governs public schools in Texas. It prohibits discrimination against students in those schools on the basis of hair texture or hairstyle historically associated with race. This includes braids, locs, and twists.

Barbers Hill Independent School District (ISD), in Mont Belvieu, Texas, enforces a dress and grooming code for students. The District Superintendent Greg Poole holds that being an American requires conformity. He contends that school districts with traditional dress codes are safer and achieve higher academic performance. The ISD student handbook states, in part:

. . . Male students’ hair will not extend, at any time, below the eyebrows or below the ear lobes. Male students’ hair must not extend below the top of a t-shirt collar or be gathered or worn in a style that would allow the hair to extend below the top of a t-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down . . .

Darryl George is a black male student at Barbers Hill High School (BHHS). Darryl wears his hair in locs as an expression of his black identity and culture. The hair of Darryl’s stepfather, father and other family members are tied and sewn into Darryl’s locs. His hair falls below his ear lobes when let down. Darryl keeps his hair twisted up while in school. BHHS continues to discipline Darryl for violation of the ISD hair-length policy. Since August 31, 2023, Darryl has been assigned to in-school suspension or to a disciplinary alternative education program.

Darryl and his mother (Darresha George) maintain that Darryl’s hair style harms no one and causes no distraction in the classroom. They hold that the ISD hair-length policy for male students is racially discriminatory.

On September 23, 2023, Ms. George, individually and as next friend to Darryl, filed a Federal civil rights lawsuit in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas against the ISD and against the Texas Governor, among others. She claims that the ISD and the State of Texas continue to violate Darryl’s rights under the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Texas CROWN Act. Subsequently, Ms. George filed a request with the Houston Division to transfer the case to the Galveston Division. Her request was granted and the case was transferred to the Galveston Division.

In the suit, Ms. George claims that Governor Abbott has protected the ISD’s improper actions and violations of the CROWN Act. She argues that the ISD is improperly punishing Darryl for violating a dress and grooming code that is unconstitutional and that is not proper under the CROWN Act. She asserts that the ISD’s enforcement of its dress and grooming code has a disparate impact on black male student with locs, braids, twists, and other protected hair styles. She notes that nonminority students have been allowed to have long hair and/or hair that is against the ISD dress code and grooming policy. It is Ms. George’s position that the ISD grooming policy pretextually focuses on hair length but is aimed at hair styles that express black identity and culture.

Ms. George has asked the Federal District Court to compel ISD to cease subjecting black students with protected hair styles from hair length requirements that, in her view, violate the CROWN Act et al.

Madonna T. Lechner was an Investigator and Team Leader with the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, from 1973 through 2007.