HOUSTON (AP) — A federal decide on Friday denied a request by a Black high school student in Texas for a courtroom order that the scholar’s legal professionals say would have allowed him to return to his highschool with out concern of getting his earlier punishment over his coiffure resume.
Darryl George had sought to reenroll at his Houston-area highschool within the Barbers Hill college district after leaving at first of his senior yr in August as a result of district officers have been set to proceed punishing him for not reducing his hair. George had spent practically all of his junior yr serving in-school suspension over his coiffure.
The district has argued that George’s lengthy hair, which he wears to highschool in tied and twisted locs on prime of his head, violates its coverage as a result of if let down, it might fall under his shirt collar, eyebrows or earlobes.
George, 19, had requested U.S. District Choose Jeffrey Brown in Galveston to situation a brief restraining order that may have prevented district officers from additional punishing him if he returned and whereas a federal lawsuit he filed proceeds.
However in a ruling issued late Friday afternoon, Brown denied George’s request, saying the scholar and his legal professionals had waited too lengthy to ask for the order.
George’s request had come after Brown in August dismissed most of the claims the scholar and his mom had filed of their federal lawsuit alleging college district officers dedicated racial and gender discrimination once they punished him.
The decide solely let the gender discrimination declare stand.
In his ruling, Brown mentioned he additionally denied George’s request for a brief restraining order as a result of the college district was extra more likely to prevail within the lawsuit’s remaining declare.
Brown’s ruling was coincidentally issued on George’s birthday. He turned 19 years previous on Friday.
Allie Booker, an legal professional for George, and a spokesperson for the Barbers Hill college district didn’t instantly return a name or e-mail looking for remark.
George’s lawyer had mentioned the scholar left Barbers Hill Excessive College in Mont Belvieu and transferred to a different highschool in a distinct Houston space district after struggling a nervous breakdown over the considered going through one other yr of punishment.
In courtroom paperwork filed this week, attorneys for the college district mentioned George didn’t have authorized standing to request the restraining order as a result of he’s not a scholar within the district.
The district has defended its costume code, which says its insurance policies for college kids are supposed to “train grooming and hygiene, instill self-discipline, stop disruption, keep away from security hazards and train respect for authority.”
George’s federal lawsuit additionally alleged that his punishment violates the CROWN Act, a current state regulation prohibiting race-based discrimination of hair. The CROWN Act, which was being mentioned earlier than the dispute over George’s hair and which took impact in September 2023, bars employers and colleges from penalizing folks due to hair texture or protecting hairstyles together with Afros, braids, locs, twists or Bantu knots.
In February, a state judge ruled in a lawsuit filed by the college district that its punishment doesn’t violate the CROWN Act.
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