Arnold’s cousin, Kaden Bradford, a sophomore, was attending a different school in the same district. Bradford was suspended by school officials and indefinitely enrolled in “in-school suspension” if he refused to cut his hair.
Both students filed grievances on Jan. 27. The claim was then followed by a lawsuit, contending that the policy unfairly enforced against them. Both students have worn dreadlocks for years. Arnold has explained that the dreadlocks are apart of his culture and identity. Their family is from Trinidad, and the men in his family often grow their dreadlocks to below their waist.
According to The Texas Tribune, Christina Beeler, a former attorney with the Juvenile and Capital Advocacy Project at the University of Houston Law Center, looked through old Barbers Hill High School’s yearbooks, there were several photos of white students with long hair. Beeler said,
White male students aren’t being held to same standard. It’s so clear that white male students and black students are being treated differently.
Locs are communicative, they express pride in one’s Black racial heritage, family heritage. It’s 2020, this is a basic recognition … but to have a federal court recognize that, it’s a huge step in the right direction.
