A US judge has denied the request of a black student in Texas who sought a court order to protect him from punishment in high school because of his hairstyle.
Officials suspended 19-year-old Darryl George last August because they said his curly hairstyle violated the dress code.
Mr. George asked District Judge Jeffrey Brown to issue a temporary restraining order so he could return to school in the Houston area in light of the federal lawsuit he filed over the amount of the suspension.
But in Friday’s ruling, Judge Brown denied the request, saying he waited too long to seek an order.
Since the start of Mr. George’s previous school year at Barbers Hill High School, which began in August 2023, he has been subject to a number of disciplinary sanctions for refusing to get a haircut.
The school district addressed its dress code, which says hair cannot “fall below the collar of a T-shirt, below the eyebrows or below the earlobes when loose.”
But Mr. George refused to cut his braided hair, citing the family’s belief that it had cultural significance to the black community.
He was kicked out of class and suspended in school, then required to attend an off-campus program.
“He had to sit in a chair for eight hours in a small room,” his mother told the Associated Press last year.
“It’s so annoying. Every day when he comes home, he says his back hurts because he has to sit in a chair.”
Mr. George returned to his old school this year.
However, Mr. George’s lawyers said last month that he was forced to deenroll and transfer to another school because school officials ordered in-school suspensions on the first and second days of New school year, starting in August.
The federal lawsuit brought by Mr. George and his mother will continue.
Mr. George alleges his punishment violates the Crown Act, a recent state law that bans hair discrimination based on race. The law, which takes effect in September 2023, prohibits employers and schools from penalizing people with protective hair textures or hairstyles, including dreadlocks.
In February, a state judge ruled that his punishment did not breach the Crown Act.
