A Black high school student in Texas has been suspended for more than two weeks for wearing a natural hairstyle that school officials say violated the district's dress code.

Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, (a town roughly 40 minutes outside of Houston) has faced numerous in-school suspensions since Aug. 31 due to his locs — which school officials say violates the district's dress code, according to local media reports.

George, 17, was suspended just before Texas' CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), banning race-based hair discrimination, went into effect statewide.

"He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle," Darryl's mother, Darresha George, told The Associated Press. "That's very uncomfortable. Every day he'd come home, he'd say his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool."

School officials say George's locs fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes, which violated the district's dress code, and the district is asking a court to clarify whether the new law "prohibits grooming policies addressing the length of a male student's hair."

The student's suspension continues to generate questions about the legality of punishing students for their hair and the extent of the newly passed law's protections.

What is the CROWN Act?

The CROWN Act is a law that bans discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective hairstyles associated with race.

First introduced in California in 2019, the act, in...

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