Kentucky state representative elect Attica Scott — the first black woman to serve in the state legislature in 20 years — took to Twitter to express disbelief over a policy at her daughter’s school that doesn’t allow students to wear their hair in cornrows, braids, twists, or dreadlocks. Scott’s daughter attends Butler Traditional High School in Louisville.
Scott tweeted about the policy on Wednesday, which drew ire from many students and parents. The school district, Jefferson County Public Schools, responded to say it was not a district policy — it was established by the school’s “decision-making council,” according to WKYC.com, which first reported the story. Regardless of whether it was an official district policy or not, Scott’s tweet clearly shows that it is being represented as an actual dress code policy. Former students and parents claimed these rules have been enforced at JCPS schools for some time.
According to the text from Scott’s tweet, these hairstyles are considered “extreme, distracting, or attention-getting.” Parents, students, and members of the local community said that the policy seemed discriminatory against black students, considering dreadlocks and cornrows — misspelled “cornrolls” in the dress code Scott provided — are hairstyles traditionally worn by black people.
Soooo…my daughter had registration today and let's just say she's not happy abt the #JCPS no natural hair policy. pic.twitter.com/ApPDyv3sbo
— Attica Woodson Scott (@atticascott) July 27, 2016
Wow 😳 @JCPSKY @JCPSSuper back at it again with the microaggressions. Praying for all the black & brown students 😪🙏🏾 https://t.co/XOZAgCjuQX
— alphaFEMALE (@showwno_) July 28, 2016
Butler, Male & other traditional schools have enforced these forever. They had the braid rule when I started 6th grade. I'm 33.
— Kevin? 🤷🏾♂️ (@kevinw502) July 27, 2016
Scott said she would contact district administrators and tweeted that if it is only a school policy, the district should at least be aware of what is going on in its schools.
Butler Traditional High School is certainly not alone in terms of discriminatory policies. Other schools have made it clear that hair styles, hair accessories, and other forms of expression that are usually embraced by black students are considered inappropriate for a school setting. One senior was escorted out of his graduation ceremony by police for wearing a Kente cloth, a traditional Ghanaian cloth, because it violated the ceremony’s dress code. In February, black parents criticized a North Carolina school’s dress code, which prohibited head wraps. Some parents said the head wraps represented an important connection to Africa. Earlier this year, students at Baltimore City College, a public magnet high school, made similar statements and protested what they called “forced assimilation” in the school dress code. The school does not allow students to wear head scarves or wraps. Three years ago, an Ohio school was heavily criticized for not allowing students to wear their hair in “afro-puffs and small twisted braids.”
This attitude toward black hair and black hairstyles can be found in the American workplace as well. A woman recently decided to begin her own protest of her workplace dress code by cosplaying on the job after her employer changed the dress code after she began working there. For example, the woman wore scarves over her hair, and subsequently the dress code was changed to ban scarves. The U.S. Army released guidelines that restricted popular black hairstyles, which resulted in a larger national conversation about how the military doesn’t recognize black hair. After Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge (D) brought attention to the issue, all three branches of the military made it clear that service members could wear their hair in two-strand twists and the Army removed the terms “matted and unkempt” from its grooming section.
Update:
Scott spoke to ThinkProgress about the response to her tweet from both the school district, former students, parents, and community members. She said she plans to meet with her daughter’s school principal on Monday and depending on how the meeting goes, she may meet with the superintendent next week.
Scott said that she wants to avoid “scapegoating” the school her daughter attends and said the focus should instead be on the greater school district for allowing these policies to be enforced at various schools in the district. Parents and former students say they have seen the hair policy at other schools in the district.
“I spoke to other parents and students who graduated a decade ago and some of them were saying the same thing that I was saying,” Scott said. “Parents didn’t want to speak up because they didn’t want to be retaliated against at the school and the students didn’t speak up because they felt like they were alone. And my daughter felt like she alone until she started seeing people responding and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, thank you for bringing this up. I can’t stand these policies.’”
Scott said that parents, students, and members of the community are planning to attend a school board meeting on August 9 to make their opinions on the policy known.
“From the response I’ve seen online, it is going to pack the house and there will probably be overflow,” Scott said. “There have been dozens of parents responding.”