An eight-year-old Native American boy was allegedly forced to cut his hair or sent home to comply with his elementary school’s haircut policy, according to the Kansas American Civil Liberties Union.
In a letter sent last week to the Girard Unified School District and RV Haderlein Elementary School, the ACLU of Kansas called the policy “discriminatory” and called on the school to end its hair policy.
In its November 17 letter, the organization said it was asking the school for “immediate approval [the unidentified student] an accommodation that allows him to wear his hair below his shoulders in accordance with his cultural and religious traditions.”
According to the letter, the advocacy group said the child is a member of the Wyandotte Nation, a federally recognized Native American tribe based in Oklahoma.
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“For spiritual and cultural reasons, many Wyandotte men cut their hair only when mourning the loss of a loved one,” the group said. “After seeing other male members wear their hair long last summer at the Nation’s annual Little Turtle Gathering,’ [the boy] was inspired to adopt the same religious and cultural practice.”
According to the letter, school officials told the eight-year-old in August that he had to cut his hair to comply with the “boy hair length” in the student dress code — a rule that does not apply to girls at the school — requiring that boys’ hair “not touch the collar crew-neck t-shirts, does not cover the eyebrows or extend below the earlobes,” among other obligations.
The boy’s mother, who also has not been identified, came to the school in September and “requested an exemption” because of her son’s “Native American heritage and spiritual beliefs,” according to the letter. She then offered to show his tribal documentation, but was allegedly told there were “no exemptions to the hair policy.”
In an email to the mother on Sept. 22, the assistant principal said the teacher “asked that he get his hair cut by Monday or he will be sent home.”
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The Kansas ACLU had no further comment when contacted by PEOPLE. Girard USD Superintendent Todd Ferguson did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
According to the legal group, based on that email, the mom believed that her son “would be sent home from school every day until he obeyed and that if she refused to cut his hair, [he] he will end up suspended.”
Fearing punishment and after several failed attempts to reach Ferguson, the mom allegedly cut her eight-year-old girls’ hair that September weekend. The decision caused the boy to be “upset,” according to the Kansas ACLU.
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The principal told CNN in an email that the school district will now review the policy.
“Nothing is more important to the district and staff at $248 than creating a safe, respectful and caring school for every student. I cannot comment on individual students, families or employees due to confidentiality laws,” Ferguson said. “I can say that the $248 Board of Education plans to review and consider updates to the dress code when it meets on December 14th.”
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Meanwhile, the ACLU said the policy violates the Kansas Preservation of Religious Freedom Act, the U.S. Constitution, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“Requiring him to cut his hair in order to attend school places a significant burden on his faith because, in itself, it violates his religious beliefs and because it also prevents him from wearing his hair long outside of school, including for religious rituals and events,” the letter said. , adding that it also promotes “rigid views of gender norms and roles” by imposing the requirement on boys only.
The charge follows a similar controversy in Texas that resulted in a black high school student being removed from school and sent to a disciplinary alternative education program because of his hairstyle.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education