The length of De鈥橝ndre Arnold鈥檚 dreadlocks didn鈥檛 keep him from walking the red carpet as a guest at the Academy Awards.
But his shoulder-length hair, which he has grown since he was in middle school, will keep him from receiving a diploma from the Texas school district he has attended since kindergarten.
Earlier this year, a social-media swarm enveloped De鈥橝ndre and Barbers Hill Independent School District, a school system of some 5,400 students in Mont Belvieu, 30 miles from downtown Houston. The district鈥檚 dress code bans male students from having long hair. It also states that they cannot wear their hair in a style meant to skirt the rule that hair can鈥檛 grow below the eyebrows or earlobes or touch a T-shirt collar.
Cut your hair, De鈥橝ndre was told, or face the prospect of not participating in the May graduation ceremony.
That is where the situation remains, even as De鈥橝ndre was feted by celebrities and professional athletes for refusing to cut his hair.
The social-media glare has dimmed on this particular dust-up, but it鈥檚 all but certain a similar controversy will flare soon in another school district, when dress codes clash with a growing number of students, parents, and researchers who see such rules and their enforcement as rife with racism and sexism.
鈥淎t Barbers Hill, they say we hold our students at a really high level,鈥� De鈥橝ndre said in an interview with Education Week. He has withdrawn from the district鈥檚 high school and is now enrolled in another district. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e students of such a high caliber, I don鈥檛 think hair would be such a distraction for us. It鈥檚 kind of ridiculous.鈥�
Greg Poole, the Barbers Hill superintendent, did not respond to a request for comment from Education Week. In other interviews, he said the restriction was never about De鈥橝ndre鈥檚 hairstyle, just its length, which applies to all male students regardless of race. In an opinion piece for a local newspaper, Poole said his district is being wrongly condemned by outsiders.
鈥淭his issue isn鈥檛 an attempt to provide fair or 鈥榚qual鈥� treatment to all students, which was a cornerstone of the civil rights movement in the last half century. This is an attempt to force unfair or 鈥榰nequal鈥� treatment based on race or culture such that a child is given preferential treatment based on his ethnicity,鈥� Poole wrote in the Baytown Sun.
He concluded: 鈥淲e will continue to strive to be correct, not politically correct.鈥�
Other Controversies
Almost monthly, a school dress-code issue pops into the public eye. Last September, a Texas grandmother was told by a public school principal that her 4-year-old grandson, who is African American, would have to cut his hair or wear a dress. In 2018, a 17-year-old Florida student was told by administrators at her public school that she needed to put bandages over her nipples. Her breasts, they said, were distracting other students.
In yet another Texas district, two African American students said that when they came to school with abstract designs shaved into the sides of their heads, administrators colored in the lines with a black Sharpie, rather than calling their parents. A federal lawsuit is pending against the Houston-area district, Pearland ISD, for those two incidents.
鈥淭he design was not something that was gang-related or offensive to another race or religion or women or anything like that. What difference does it make?鈥� said Randall Kallinen, the lawyer representing the two students. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see how they鈥檙e disruptive, either. It鈥檚 just, 鈥業鈥檝e defined that as bad, so it鈥檚 bad.鈥� 鈥�
In a statement to the Houston Chronicle, Pearland spokeswoman Kim Hocott said that 鈥渨hile specific details cannot be discussed, we remain confident the outcome will be favorable for the district.鈥�
It鈥檚 not a surprise that many of the dress-code controversies that make the news involve girls and African American students, some researchers said. Their bodies are particularly under scrutiny by school officials鈥攁nd the students know it.
鈥淲hen we look at what鈥檚 happening to kids in school, it鈥檚 a lot of policing of black and brown bodies,鈥� said Rachel Roegman, an assistant professor of education policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She and co-author Alyssa Pavlakis, a graduate student at the university, interviewed students in a Midwestern high school and discussed their findings in an article that ran in Phi Delta Kappan.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 always give kids credit. Kids are aware that different kids, because of their race and gender, get different consequences based on the same offense,鈥� Roegman said in an interview. Teachers and students at the school said black males are more likely to be disciplined for dress-code violations than white males, even though their violation rates were similar, according to the Kappan article.
But the act of 鈥減olicing鈥� is nuanced: Sometimes black or female administrators are the ones who are coming out in favor of such codes.
In April 2019, a Houston high school principal made national news when she banned parents from coming on campus wearing leggings, ripped jeans, minidresses, and hair bonnets, among other forbidden clothing items. The school is predominantly black and Hispanic, and the principal, Carlotta Outley Brown, is also black.
鈥淭here鈥檚 respectability politics. I think we need to start addressing that,鈥� said Adaku Onyeka-Crawford, the director of educational equity and senior counsel for the National Women鈥檚 Law Center.
鈥淭o start, black girls are not going to be able to dress their way to freedom. You have to wrestle with the fact that anti-black messages have been handed down from generation to generation. People start to internalize those things, and it鈥檚 more harmful than it is helpful,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e should allow black students to be confident in themselves in school.鈥�
The NWLC has produced two publications, Dress Coded and Let Her Learn, that explore the disparate impact of dress-code enforcement, sexual harassment, and other practices that they say impede girls鈥� success in school.
Lisa Frack, a former president of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for Women, said she was tired of seeing story after story about girls running afoul of student dress policies. What if the organization, instead of criticizing problems after the fact, created a model policy that schools could adopt or work from?
So, it did. The model policy, which was adopted by the Portland, Ore., district in 2016, says students must cover their private parts and wear shoes, and that鈥檚 about it. There are no restrictions on hair length, width of tank-top straps, or whether underwear waistbands or bra straps must be covered. 69传媒 can wear hats or hoodies, as long as teachers can see their faces and if they are wearing earbuds.
鈥淧eople were saying, 鈥極h, they鈥檙e going to wear bikinis and macrame jumpsuits'鈥攏obody has,鈥� Frack said. What has happened, she said, is that teachers no longer feel like they have to enforce dress codes, and students are no longer subject to enforcement that varied depending on the whims of different teachers and administrators. People from around the country have reached out in support.
鈥淲hat are you trying to create in your school?鈥� Frack said she would ask of school leaders. 鈥淵ou want kids to feel motivated and excited about learning in an open-ended way. There is no one way of looking that reflects the things they can go and do. To tell them there鈥檚 one way to be鈥攖hat makes the grown-ups less credible.鈥�
Frack is aware that what may work in liberal Portland, however, might not pass as easily in other parts of the country. But, she said, 鈥減arents can still boss their kids around as much as they want to. Do you really want the government telling your kids what to wear?鈥�
Dorinda Carter Andrews, a professor of race, culture, and equity at Michigan State University, also said that school administrators should look closely at their dress codes and what they want them to accomplish.
鈥淒oes the policy in any way serve to police or surveil student bodies? And if so, how do we redress the policy?鈥� Carter Andrews said. 鈥淚 think the second question people do have to ask is, 鈥楧oes our dress code further marginalize students who are already further marginalized by school culture?鈥� These are basic questions that need to be on the table before policies even get created.鈥�
Traditionally, the dress-code policies are 鈥渃loaked in white-normed, Eurocentric framings of what is professional, what is good,鈥� she said. And it鈥檚 troubling, she said, that lawmakers are now passing bills to prevent discrimination based on hairstyles associated with black culture.
鈥淭hat ought to cause us all to step back,鈥� Carter Andrews said.
On March 4, Virginia became one of four states, along with California, New Jersey, and New York, to enact a law banning discrimination based on hairstyles traditionally associated with black people, such as braids, dreadlocks, and twists. Lawmakers in Texas and several other states are working on similar laws.
But changing mindsets may be challenging.
Safety and Compliance
Permian High School in Odessa, Texas, immortalized in the book, film, and television show 鈥淔riday Night Lights,鈥� is 500 miles from the Barbers Hill district. But it has a similar dress-code policy. Girls can鈥檛 wear spaghetti straps or tube tops. 鈥淓xtreme modes of hair design and color鈥� are forbidden. Piercings can only be in the ear. (Barbers Hill forbids male students from wearing earrings at all.)
Danny Gex, the principal of the 3,600-student school, said dress codes are not the most important issue he faces on a day-to-day basis. Still, he understands and supports such policies.
First, Gex said, it鈥檚 a safety issue. Though all Permian students are required to wear student IDs on a lanyard, a long-haired male student or a person with multiple piercings would quickly stand out as not belonging on campus, he said.
But also, he said, it鈥檚 about learning how to comply with rules, just as students will be expected to do once they leave school.
鈥淵ou can say we force them to go to school, we shouldn鈥檛 force them to cut their hair. But what are you going to do when your job forces you to do something? My question is, we鈥檙e just going to allow kids to make whatever choice they want, whenever they want, and just hope that whenever they graduate ... they鈥檙e going to start complying then? I think that鈥檚 a silly argument.鈥�
Gex said he gives students a chance to comply. 鈥淲e try to use common sense,鈥� he said. But if they refuse, then it鈥檚 not about the dress code, he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about insubordination.鈥�
Two students recently came to Gex with over 1,000 signatures opposing the district鈥檚 prohibition on 鈥渆xtreme鈥� hair colors. He told them he was proud of their work and showed them how to get on the school board鈥檚 calendar to present their request to district officials.
鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing wrong with that. You have to teach kids how to stand up for themselves,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut you need to comply with the policy that鈥檚 set forth first, and then go through the changes.鈥�
Back at Mont Belvieu, the whirlwind that surrounded De鈥橝ndre has died down. Earlier this year, he attended the Oscars, as a guest of a team that developed an award-winning animated short film called 鈥淗air Love鈥� that celebrated African American hairstyles. He also appeared on 鈥淭he Ellen Show,鈥� where host Ellen DeGeneres implored the district to relax its policy, right before presenting Arnold a $20,000 scholarship check.
But De鈥橝ndre is now attending school at neighboring Goose Creek ISD, as is his cousin Kaden Bradford, a sophomore whose hairstyle also ran afoul of Barbers Hill鈥檚 dress code. Goose Creek鈥檚 dress code requires only that hair be 鈥渘eat, clean, well-groomed, and out of the eyes.鈥�
Looking Forward
De鈥橝ndre is remarkably calm about leaving behind the district that educated not only him but many of his family members. His mother鈥檚 late uncle, M.Q. Bradford, served on the district鈥檚 school board from 1970 to 1984.
鈥淲e鈥檙e just looking at the positive. As long as I鈥檓 getting my diploma, I don鈥檛 just want to focus on the negative,鈥� he said.
But the events have prompted him to become more politically aware. 鈥淭his has kind of opened my eyes. I see now I have to stand up even more for everybody鈥檚 cause. I wouldn鈥檛 want anybody to have to go through this alone. I鈥檓 focused on trying to be there for others.鈥�
But mostly, he鈥檚 said, he鈥檚 thinking about graduation and his dream of becoming a veterinarian. Recently, he had to say goodbye to two beloved dogs that died; one was older, the other relatively young. But the vet told him nothing could be done to cure the dogs鈥� ailments.
De鈥橝ndre鈥檚 goal, he said, is to be able to do something.
