On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a district that touts its excellence found itself embroiled in controversy about race, discrimination and dreadlocks. “The dress code is designed by white people for white people and is damaging to black bodies ” said Black Lives Matter activist Ashton Woods.
Treyvion Gray, a Black high school senior in the Needville Independent School District located in Fort Bend County, Texas, was first approached last December about the length of his locs as he was walking to gym class.
“Treyvion your hair’s getting too long, you’re going to have to cut it,” he recalled the assistant principal saying to him. “And I said, “Ma’am, why would I have to? Why am I going to have to cut my hair? There are other kids literally with hair longer than mine, and it’s all past their collar. So why are you talking to me about mine?”
The district’s dress code states that boys’ hair should not cover their ears, past their eyebrows, “or over the top of a standard collar in the back when combed down,” according to the document seen by Insider.
