Black high school students in Texas A person who was punished almost throughout the third grade According to his attorney, he left his school district rather than face another year of suspension because of his hairstyle.
But 18-year-old Darryl George wants to return to his Houston-area high school, Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, for his final year. He asked a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order to stop school officials from further punishing him for not cutting his hair. That would allow him to return to school while his federal lawsuit is pending.
George’s request comes after U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown in August dismissed most of the claims made by the student and his mother in a federal lawsuit alleging that school district officials discriminated against him based on race and gender when they disciplined him. George was suspended from school after hearing that his hair had grown below his eyebrows and earlobes.
The judge only upheld the gender discrimination claim, questioning whether the school district’s hair length rule did more harm than good.
“Judge Brown, please help me to continue to attend school like a normal teenager while this case proceeds,” George said in a statement filed last month.
At George’s request, Brown scheduled a court hearing in Galveston for October 3.
Daresha George / AP
In court documents filed last week, attorneys for the school district argued the judge had no jurisdiction to issue the injunction because George was no longer a student in the district.
“George’s resignation from the school district does not preclude him from seeking damages for past wrongdoings. However, the school district argues that he suffered constitutional harm and is not entitled to seek damages,” the school district’s attorney said.
The district defends the dress code, saying the policy for students is intended to “teach grooming and hygiene, instill discipline, prevent disruptive behavior, avoid safety hazards, and teach respect for authority.”
In court documents filed last week, Allie Booker, one of George’s attorneys, said the student was forced to “deenroll” from Barbers Hill High School in Mont Bellevue and transfer to another high school in another Houston-area school district after Barbers Hill officials suspended him in-school on the first and second days of the new school year that began last month.
“This caused him significant emotional distress and ultimately led to a nervous breakdown. As a result, we had no choice but to remove him from the school environment,” Booker said.
George’s departure was “not a matter of choice, but a matter of survival,” but Booker said his mother wanted him to return because she moved to the area because of the quality of the district’s schools.
George was excluded from regular high school classes for most of the 2023-24 school year, when he was a junior, because the district said his hair length violated the dress code. George was suspended from school or had to spend time in an off-campus disciplinary program.
The district argued that George’s long hair, which he wore to school in a bun and twisted around his head, violated the policy because when he wore his hair down, it fell below his shirt collar, eyebrows, or earlobes. The district said other students with buns were compliant with the length policy.
George’s federal lawsuit also argued that his punishment violated: Crown law, Recent state laws banning racial discrimination based on hair. The CROWN Act, which was discussed before George’s hair dispute and takes effect in September 2023, prohibits employers and schools from punishing people because of their hair texture or protective hairstyles, including afros, braids, locs, twists or Bantu knots.
In February, a state judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by the school district that the punishment did not violate the CROWN Act.
Barbers Hill’s hair policy was also challenged in a federal lawsuit filed in May 2020 by two other students. Both students withdrew from the high school, but one student returned after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction. The injunction said there was a “substantial likelihood” that his free speech and racial discrimination rights would be violated if he were banned. That lawsuit is still pending.
