Houston-area school district drops gender-based policy on long hair

[TexasTowelie]

by Allyson Waller, Texas Tribune


A Houston-area school district has reversed a dress code policy that prohibited male and nonbinary students from wearing long hair — more than a month after a lawsuit accused the district of enforcing a discriminatory rule.

The Magnolia Independent School District’s school board voted on Monday night to alter its dress code and eliminate the policy, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. The ACLU of Texas said the district reached a settlement agreement that allows for students who were previously disciplined under the school’s former hair policy to “have their records expunged.”

The district confirmed Tuesday that under the agreement, male students will no longer have to keep their hair within a certain length. It will also make its dress code policy on earrings gender-neutral. The district’s 2021-2022 student handbook currently says earrings should be worn only by female students and “earrings worn by boys will be confiscated and may not be returned to the student.”

The ACLU of Texas announced in October it was suing the district on behalf of seven students over the district’s hair policy, which stated that hair must “be no longer than the bottom of a dress shirt collar, bottom of the ear, and out of the eyes for male students.” The lawsuit claimed the district violated students’ right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational institutions that receive federal dollars.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12/14/magnolia-isd-long-hair-policy/

[Texaswitchy]

1. I went to school with long hair hippy types.

Long hair.