A Texas school district bans boys from wearing long hair.
Now, some students are suing.
School officials in Texas forced a 9-year-old boy to serve an in-school suspension for a month,
deprived him of recess and normal lunch breaks, and
banished him from campus to an alternative school —
all to pressure the fourth-grader into getting a haircut,
seven students suing a Texas school district for what they call a discriminatory policy that requires boys to wear short hair.
against the Magnolia Independent School District, which serves some 13,000 students about 40 miles northwest of Houston. deep in the heart of hole
the district’s policy prohibiting boys from wearing long hair is based on gender stereotypes that violate the Cons ution.
They say administrators apply it unevenly, allowing some boys to wear long hair that violates the district’s grooming standards while punishing others.
“We have warned the district repeatedly that its gender-based hair policy violates the Cons ution,
but the district continues to derail students’ lives and deny their right to a public education free from discrimination,”
The rule requires that male students’ hair must be “no longer than the bottom of a dress shirt collar, bottom of the ear, and out of the eyes,” the district’s handbook states.
defended the policy and said it was similar to policies in place for about half of Texas public school districts.
“This system of differentiated dress and grooming standards have been affirmed by courts and does not inhibit equal access to educational opportunities under le IX.”
the district had defended the approach by saying it “reflects the values of our community at large.”
Sanctions have included days, or even weeks, of in-school suspension, according to the lawsuit.
For some of the students, officials escalated the
punishment by sending them to an alternative school “typically reserved for students who have violated state or federal law or committed serious violations of school policies,” it adds.
The district did not provide them transportation to get there,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/21/texas-students-long-hair-lawsuit