texas school district bans dreadlock-wearing student

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(clicky)A Texas school district is in legal trouble for what many are calling racial discrimination. The school, citing their recently (week ago) revised dress code policy, is not only threatening to suspend 18-year-old Deandre Arnold, but also banning him from his graduation in 3 months — unless he cuts off his dreadlocks.
if the ACLU can't deliver here, he better prepare to get himself a GED.

How about maturity and conforming to an expected professional standard? People are treating high school too lightly. While Deandre's dreads look great on him and he's said to be an excellent student (by a Woods in the article who thinks "white-peopling" is a word...for whatever HIS opinion is worth on academic excellence) I don't know if Deandre's dreads are the hill to die on.

If I were him I would just go with the rule as a sign of maturity and flexibility--chill enough to go with the flow. I've been in a school once where there were parts that if you didn't have a black or navy blue suit on you did not go in. Guess what, I always followed that dress code & appearance code...I wasn't allowed to grow a mustache though that could be said to have a cultural significance due to my Anglo-Irish background. So I shaved.

It's just hair. If anyone knows it will grow back, it's Deandre. Why waste the federal judge's time?

because it is blatantly racist. the rule was "off ears and collar" and he followed the rule, they are just picking on him for no good reason. military haircuts have no place in the civilian world. IMHO they have no place in the military also, we are the only nation so hung up over having short hair. must be our puritanical heritage.

The "school-to-prison pipeline" is why Texas schools are crap.

Along with:

Half-assed teaching

School districts not funding school supplies, because they need a shiny new football stadium.

Totalitarian zero-tolerance policies

Students taught to "follow orders" and not much else

We rank 33rd now, but we were dead last when I was in school. "Thank God for Texas" became a household term in Mississippi.

the big problem i have with those fascists is they want ME to follow their "orders" as well.

i don't get it, dreads take time to grow out, why say something about it now?

We had a similar case in Australia involving an Afro, the boys mother took the school to court.

In the end the school's policy of short hair for males is allowed. However for girls if white "becky" is allowed to grow her hair long then why is Deshandra not allowed to grow an afro
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50786370

it is hypocrisy, and the cruelty is not accidental but an integral part of it.

Dress code is dress code. The rules are the same for everyone, and if everyone else has to, then he should too.

That said, I think it's beyond ridiculous to even have such a rule in 2020. It sounds hopelessly outdated and in need of change.
I've gone to school with several guys who wouldn't be allowed to attend that school.

if he has to have military short hair then so should the female students. what's fair is fair. anything else is a hypocritical double-standard.

The school district I was in had different dress codes for each school.

The schools that were minority-majority required standardized dress or uniforms. The ones that were predominantly white did not. Zero tolerance policies were never about safety. They were solely about keeping minority students in line. I bet 10x more energy was spent in enforcing those policies than actually teaching students.

(the ones I attended required standardized dress)

that is so not fair.

First off, it sounds like this student has already earned enough credits to graduate so they are required to issue him a diploma regardless of how this all turns out. No need for a GED here.

I also noticed that the district waited until after Community College classes started to double down on this which suggests they knew that if they went too fast, Deandre's parents would have simply forced them to issue the diploma and Deandre would have simple started college classes. By doing this now they screw up the whole term.

Finally, the student and his parents had a contract with school district regarding an exemption to the rule. The school district unilaterally changed the contract without negotiating with his parents which is not allowed in contract law.

Sounds to me like there is a bigger issue here.

And to those who say "Don't fall in this sword", I have to ask, what sword should they fall on. Change comes because people are willing to fall on swords. This though proves to me that John Taylor Gatto was correct, schools are not for education, they are for social control.

None of those answers fit my opinion.

I just think it's messed up, what business of theirs is it how he styles his hair...its his hair. If that might hold him back from some certain job opportunities or whatever shouldn't that be up to him? Also I have seen plenty of people with jobs and even professional sort of people with dreads, so they certainly do not make someone unhireable.

If he has passed his classes and gotten his credits than he should get his diploma regardless of what his hair looks like.

it makes me ashamed to be an amuuuurican, that we have such moral atavism in this nation in these modern times.