The same week his state outlawed racial discrimination based on hairstyles, a Black high school student in Texas was suspended because school officials said his locs violated the district’s dress code.

Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, received an in-school suspension after he was told his hair fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes. George, 17, wears his hair in thick twisted dreadlocks, tied on top of his head, said his mother, Darresha George.

George served the suspension last week. His mother said he plans to return to the Houston-area school Monday, wearing his dreadlocks in a ponytail, even if he is required to attend an alternative school as a result.

    • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
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      Greg Poole, who has been district superintendent since 2006, said the policy is legal and teaches students to conform as a sacrifice benefitting everyone.

      “When you are asked to conform … and give up something for the betterment of the whole, there is a psychological benefit,” Poole said. “We need more teaching (of) sacrifice.”

      It’s explicitly said by the superintendent.

      • eric@lemmy.world
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        Follow up question Mr Superintendent: in what way does prohibiting this particular hairstyle “benefit the whole?”

        • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
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          There is another quote from him saying it’s a rule that’s been on the books for 30 years. As if that’s a good enough reason to keep it rather than actually being a reason to reexamine it’s worth in today’s society.

          • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            Anyone who uses the excuse that “this is how it’s been done for x number of years so we’re going to keep doing it that way” should be punched in the face repeatedly until their teeth turn to fuckin dust because they should be able to speak anymore.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      My kid is always amazed that despite violating the dress code she never gets in trouble. I told her that the rules aren’t there to be enforced equally, they’re there to give them an excuse to harass students and because she’s one of the “good kids” she gets away with it.

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        Meanwhile I saw kids of any color hauled out of my school for wearing ANY red

        Literally every other rule was flaunted daily but if you wore red they’d drag your ass to the admin office to take your shoelaces for the day (saw that one) or wear one of the embarrassing and huge and overused day use shirts (happened to a friend), didn’t matter who you were

        Just a funny story about my weirdly strict in some ways high school

            • shalafi@lemmy.world
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              Thought it was a dumb question, but I couldn’t get my head around it. So Crips are all good at this school?! And who the hell wears purple? I’m old and out of touch.

              • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                Both colors were local gangs of almost nobodies. Technically the blue one fed to the Crips somehow but idk I didn’t hang out with those guys much

                Blue was one of the schools colors so they couldn’t ban that, but RED SCARRRRYYYY

                I think they’ve finally lifted that now almost 10 years later

              • ANGRY_MAPLE@sh.itjust.works
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                Some crips in California wear them, IIRC. It could be regional, too.

                Smaller gangs will sometimes use a colour that’s unused in their area, even if it might already be known to represent something else in another place.

                My school has so many problems with that that they banned any non-black shoelaces and also implemented an expensive uniform that was ugly.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        1 year ago

        “There are in-groups the law must protect but not bind, and outgroups the law must bind and not protect”. This is the core of conservative thought.

    • chaogomu@kbin.social
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      Trust me, as someone who was military, they care about how exact you are when making the bed. It’s not just about following orders, it’s how well you follow them and your attention to detail.

      Oddly, my military experience also focused on how to break rules, and how to know which ones to break. That and the knowledge that there was a waiver for everything.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      I mean, have you seen how they design schools these days? I’ve seen jails that looked less secure, and more comfy. They’re conditioning the kids knowing that 1/4 will end up in jail or on probation at some point in their lives. They don’t see them as children, they see them as potential “criminals” to wring every dollar they can out of.