Darryl George, a 17-year-old junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, has been suspended for not slicing his hair.

Michael Wyke/AP

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Michael Wyke/AP

Darryl George, a 17-year-old junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, has been suspended for not slicing his hair.

Michael Wyke/AP

A Black highschool scholar in Texas has been suspended for greater than two weeks for carrying a pure coiffure that faculty officers say violated the district’s costume code.

Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, (a city roughly 40 minutes outdoors of Houston) has confronted quite a few in-school suspensions since Aug. 31 as a result of his locs — which faculty officers say violates the district’s costume code, according to local media reports.

George, 17, was suspended simply earlier than Texas’ CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), banning race-based hair discrimination, went into effect statewide.

“He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle,” Darryl’s mom, Darresha George, informed The Associated Press. “That’s very uncomfortable. Every day he’d come home, he’d say his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool.”

School officers say George’s locs fell beneath his eyebrows and ear lobes, which violated the district’s dress code, and the district is asking a court to clarify whether or not the brand new regulation “prohibits grooming policies addressing the length of a male student’s hair.”

The scholar’s suspension continues to generate questions concerning the legality of punishing college students for his or her hair and the extent of the newly handed regulation’s protections.

What is the CROWN Act?

The CROWN Act, an acronym that means “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” would add coiffure and texture to a provision within the Minnesota Human Rights Act that prohibits racial discrimination in housing, employment and training, amongst different areas. Here, Rep. Esther Agbaje, D-Minneapolis, speaks to reporters outdoors of the House chamber in St. Paul on Feb. 28, 2022.

Mohamed Ibrahim/AP

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Mohamed Ibrahim/AP

The CROWN Act, an acronym that means “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” would add coiffure and texture to a provision within the Minnesota Human Rights Act that prohibits racial discrimination in housing, employment and training, amongst different areas. Here, Rep. Esther Agbaje, D-Minneapolis, speaks to reporters outdoors of the House chamber in St. Paul on Feb. 28, 2022.

Mohamed Ibrahim/AP

The CROWN Act is a regulation that bans discrimination on the premise of hair texture or protecting hairstyles related to race.

First launched in California in 2019, the act, partially, works to criminalize the concentrating on of hairstyles which can be usually related to race — which may forestall employers, educators and others from imposing strict guidelines associated to 1’s bodily look.

The inaugural CROWN Act expanded the definition on the subject of race in California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and the state’s Education Code — aiming for cover throughout workplaces along with Okay-12 public and constitution faculties, in response to the official website for the marketing campaign to go the laws.

“Hair discrimination is rooted in systemic racism, and its purpose is to preserve white spaces,” the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund said.

“Policies that prohibit natural hairstyles, like afros, braids, bantu knots, and locs, have been used to justify the removal of Black children from classrooms, and Black adults from their employment,” the group added.

How many states have handed the CROWN Act?

So far, 24 states together with the U.S. Virgin Islands have signed the CROWN Act into law: Alaska; Arizona; Arkansas; California; Colorado; Connecticut; Delaware; Illinois; Louisiana; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Minnesota; Nebraska; Nevada; New Jersey; New Mexico; New York; Oregon; Tennessee; Texas; Virginia; and Washington.

Texas was the 24th state to implement a version of the law, which went into impact on Sept. 1.

The laws has been proposed in 20 further states and Washington, D.C.

Is there any motion federally on this?

In March 2022, the House passed the CROWN Act in a vote of 235-189.

But later that yr, Senate Republicans blocked the bill as the legislation failed to get enough support from Republicans to override a filibuster from Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul.

“When the CROWN Act was first introduced during the 116th Congress [in 2020], it passed the House by voice vote without objection,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., who sponsored the laws within the House, stated in a December 2022 news release on the difficulty.

“Our fight is far from over. … I am disappointed, but not defeated. I remain steadfast in my commitment to protecting all Americans’ right to exist as their authentic selves,” she added.