For as long as schools have policed hairstyles as part of their dress codes, some students have seen the rules as attempts to deny their cultural and religious identities.

Nowhere have school rules on hair been a bigger flashpoint than in Texas, where a trial this week is set to determine whether high school administrators can continue punishing a Black teenager for refusing to cut his hair. The 18-year-old student, Darryl George, who wears his hair in locs tied atop his head, has been kept out of his classroom since the start of the school year.

To school administrators, strict dress codes can be tools for promoting uniformity and discipline. But advocates say the codes disproportionately affect students of color and the punishments disrupt learning. Under pressure, many schools in Texas have removed boys-only hair length rules, while hundreds of districts maintain hair restrictions written into their dress codes.

Schools that enforce strict dress codes have higher rates of punishment that take students away from learning, such as suspensions and expulsions, according to an October 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office. The report called on the U.S. Department of Education to provide resources to help schools design more equitable dress codes.

  • Sorgan71@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I think some codes are reasonable, mainly those that promote hygiene, which kids are notoriously bad at.

    • nutsack@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      can you give me some examples of that? I’ve never seen a policy that your clothes had to be clean but maybe that’s because I never went to look for that sort of thing

      • kuneho@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It’s not school rule. It’s parenting rule to provide your kid with clean clothes as much as you can, or at least, it should be.

          • desconectado@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Did your parents never tell you to keep your clothes clean for school? That’s just normal parenting, how’s that dark?

            • nutsack@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              it’s dark to think that some kids go to school wearing dirty clothes and so there’s a policy against it

              holy shit lemmy is stupid

              • desconectado@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                Well it was not clear what you were referring to. The comment you replied was talking about the rules, not the kids wearing dirty clothes.

                Since when Lemmy got full of pretentious twats that label everyone stupid for having a misunderstanding that is clearly their fault?

      • Sorgan71@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        because probably it was not bad enough for them to enforce it. But there is always that one kid…