130-page appeal filed to overturn court ruling in Barbers Hill student’s natural hair case

A 130-page appeal seeks to overturn a court ruling that upholds a Barbers Hill Independent School District policy that prohibits a student from wearing his hair naturally styled on school property.

Student Darryl George, who is beginning his senior year in the school district, and his family are currently embroiled in a legal battle over school district policies.

In an interview with KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun, attorney Allie Booker said that while she was disappointed that the judge rejected most of her arguments, she saw an opportunity for gender discrimination.

In the appeal, Booker argues, “Because Section 25.902 does not permit the school district to invent a hair length exception for its students or to construe its silence regarding hair length in a way that would undermine the plain purpose of the statute, the Court should vacate the final judgment’s finding that the male hair length restriction ‘neither prohibits nor discriminates against male students who wear braids, locks, or plaits,’ and enter a declaratory judgment in favor of the Georges that the school district’s male hair length restriction violates Section 25.902 of the Texas Education Code,'” the appeal states.

George was excluded from regular high school classes for most of the 2023-24 school year when he was a junior because administrators felt his hair length violated the school district’s dress code. George was either suspended from school at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu or entered an out-of-school disciplinary program.

Earlier this year, on February 22, Chambers County Judge Chap B. Cain III ruled in favor of the school district, declaring that the dress code prohibiting male students from having long hair does not violate the CROWN Act.

Since the court’s ruling, the George family and attorneys Dylan Drummond and Allie Booker have continued to argue that the sentence actually violates the CROWN Act.

The CROWN Act, which stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” went into effect on September 1 of last year. The law prohibits dress codes or grooming policies in schools and workplaces from discriminating based on hair texture or protective hairstyles that are related to race.

The school district’s dress code requires that male students cannot have hair that extends “below the eyebrows or below the earlobes.” It also requires that boys’ hair “must not fall below the top of a T-shirt collar or be tied or worn in a hairstyle that allows the hair to extend below the top of a T-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the earlobes when worn loose.”