State lawmakers propose bills banning hair discrimination in schools - KWTX

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KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) - Members of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus have filed a few bills already this session seeking to ban hair discrimination in schools.

“Any student dress or grooming policy adopted by a school district, including a student dress or grooming policy for any extracurricular activity, may not discriminate against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race,” reads House Bill 392, filed by state Rep. Rhetta Bowers, D-Garland.

The same language can be found in House Bill 1113, filed by state Rep. Sean Thierry, D-Houston, and House Bill 38, filed by state Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City.

The bills include braids, locks and twists in their definition of protective hairstyles.

They come on the heels of an incident at Barber Hills Independent School District last year in which student DeAndre Arnold was suspended because of his hair.

District officials told Arnold he needed to cut his hair or he would not be able to walk across the stage at his graduation.

That incident garnered national attention and prompted groups to question the dress codes of schools around the country.

In August, a federal judge blocked Barber Hills Independent School District from maintaining that policy, calling it discriminatory.

Efforts to prohibit hair discrimination at the state level mirror similar efforts in California, New York and New Jersey.

“When we want to wear our hair one way, and they’re telling us to wear it another way, there’s something wrong with that,” Harker Heights resident Douglas Brimley told KWTX.

“It’s taking you away from your culture,” Brimley said.

Killeen resident Kenneth Hubbard said school districts run into trouble when they enforce policies inconsistently.

“If it’s long hair, the policy, that’s what you’re talking about — long hair — then you enforce it along those lines,” Hubbard said.

“But if you’re just talking a certain hairstyle — a certain ethnic group — that’s inconsistent, and also it’s counterproductive,” he said.

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