ANAHUAC, Texas (AP) A judge has ruled that a Black high school student’s monthslong punishment by his Texas school district for refusing to change his hairstyle does not violate a new state law prohibiting race-based hair discrimination. Darryl George hasn’t been in his regular classes at his Houston-area high school since Aug. 31 because his school district says he’s violating its policy limiting the length of boys’ hair. George wears his hair in tied and twisted locs on top of his head, and his attorney says his hairstyle is protected by the CROWN Act. State District Judge Chap Cain III on Thursday ruled in favor of the Barbers Hill school district, which argued its policy doesn’t violate the law.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) is calling on Congress to pass federal legislation protecting Black hairstyles after a Texas judge ruled teachers did not violate legal protections when they punished a student for wearing dreadlocks. “This is a pathetic, wilful and anti-Black misinterpretation of the CROWN Act,” Pressley posted Thursday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.…