When Texas finally passed the CROWN Act in September, it was heralded as a victory.
Still, with the law on his side, Darryl George, 18, was suspended for 13 days because his hair was “out of compliance” when let down, according to a disciplinary notice issued by Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas.
That suspension came on George’s first day back at the school after spending a month at an off-site disciplinary program because the junior refused to change his hairstyle. When George returned, he stood his ground, contending that the CROWN ACT (now state law) protected his right to wear his natural hair.
Barbers Hill officials, disregarding state law, hit George with the 13-day suspension. The result: a young Black male who wants to attend classes and who followed state law, already spent more than 80% of his junior year outside of his regular classroom, and the school administrators responsible are not being criminally held accountable.
“It’s frustrating because I’m getting punished for something everyone else is doing, growing hair, having hair,” George said, who added during a KHOU interview that he’s “taking a big hit in my mental health because I’m sitting here wondering when this is going to be over, how it’s going to be resolved [and] how I’m going to continue my future with this going on.”
George’s latest stand is a renewal of the teen and his family’s monthslong standoff over a dress code policy they correctly deem discriminatory.
Mont Belvieu is 84.89% white and 8.98% Black and votes overwhelmingly Republican – the supposed party of law and order. But laws in that city, and nationally, only seem to apply to Black and Latinx individuals. Barbers Hill administrators are “out of compliance” with the CROWN Act, yet face no punishments.
George has the law on his side. The CROWN Act protects his right to wear his natural hair. But in predominantly white Mont Belvieu, state law is taking a back seat to the apparent overwhelming desire to punish Blacks for displaying their humanity.
“We are just trying to take it day by day. That’s all we can do,” his mother, Darresha George, told The Associated Press. “We do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. But we are not giving up.”
