‘Discriminatory’ dress codes must end at hundreds of Texas school districts, ACLU says

The American Civil Liberties Union sent letters to 477 Texas school districts urging them to change their dress and grooming policies.

The letters, sent Sept. 2, warn schools that they’re receiving the correspondence because their dress and grooming policies contain rules that are “unconstitutional and discriminatory.”

“While school districts throughout the country have removed policies that were based on antiquated sex stereotypes, many school districts in Texas still have policies that treat students differently on the basis of their gender, such as requiring different hair and dress standards for male and female students,” Brian Klosterboer, attorney for ACLU of Texas, said in a news release.

Earlier this summer, the ACLU of Texas represented Kaden Bradford in a suit against the Barbers Hill school district in Mont Belvieu, east of Houston, after Bradford and his cousin De’Andre Arnold were prevented from wearing long dreadlocks.

Arnold was suspended in January for the length of his dreadlocks, McClatchy News previously reported. The family said they had several meetings with school officials before winter break regarding the dress code. The district ultimately said Arnold would face suspension if he didn’t cut his hair.

Arnold had said that he had started growing out his dreadlocks in the seventh grade, McClatchy reported.

“They said Deandre’s hair can’t touch the collar, ears or in the face,” his mother said, according to McClatchy. “It never really did, he’s always had it up.”

Bradford, Arnold’s cousin was also suspended by school officials after the dress and grooming policy was changed in the middle of his sophomore year to prohibit male students from wearing long hair.

Female students, however, were allowed to sport long hair under Barber Hill’s policy, according to court documents.

Following national outcry, the Barbers Hill school district voted in July to not change its policy to allow male students to wear long hair, McClatchy reported.

In August, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas blocked the school’s grooming policy, finding that the district’s policies were discriminatory based on race and sex, the ACLU reported.

The ACLU sent the letters in light of the ruling, and is calling on the school districts to amend their dress and grooming codes “to ensure that it conforms to federal law and does not contain any restrictions that discriminate against students based on sex, race, or religion.”