A Texas schools superintendent is under fire for telling a woman to cut her grandson’s dreadlocks or put him in a dress for wearing his hair too long.
The unusual demand was made after the school notified the grandmother that her grandson was in violation of the school’s dress code.
Randi Woodley and parents of children attending a Texas school say the school board altered the dress code to discriminate against Black children.
“I went to the principal’s office, where she explained to me that my grandson’s hair was too long,” Woodley told KETK.
Woodley said she attended the school board meeting where she addressed the restrictive dress code with Tatum Independent School District’s superintendent.
“He told me that I could either cut it, braid it and pin it up or put my grandson in a dress and send him to school and, when prompted, my grandson must say he’s a girl,” Woodley said.
The school district’s policy states: “No ponytails, ducktails, rat-tails, male buns or puffballs are allowed on male students. ALL male hair of any type SHALL NOT extend past the top of a t-shirt collar, as it lays naturally.”
But Woodley says the dress code targets Black boys like her grandson who wear dreadlocks past their collars.
Parent Kambry Cox told KETK that her son thinks something is wrong with his dreadlocks.
“With my son’s dreadlocks, sometimes they do fall in front of his face, so I felt it would be easier to put his hair up, but then that’s a problem,” Cox said.
