Black School Changes Hair Policy After Dreadlock Ban Causes Stir

  An Oklahoma charter school has decided to amend its dress code after drawing criticism for telling a 7-year-old girl that her dreadlocks were in violation of the school's policy.

 

  Tiana Parker, 7 was dimissed from the Deborah Brown Community School in Tulsa and told her hairstyle was against school policy. The child's parents have decided to enroll Tiana in another school.

 

  On Monday night, the schoolboard over turned the ban on dreadlocks, afros and other hairstyles, Dreadlocks are formed by locking, twisting or braiding hair.

 

  The new policy states that only  students and parents are responsible for personal hygiene and that administrators have the right to contact parents or guardians regarding these issues. There are no specifications on hair styles.

 

School board president Kenneth James said in a statement that the school administration did not intend to harm Tiana or her family and apologized if any harm did occur.

James said the ban on dreadlocks, afros and other hairstyles was due to health and safety concerns. Really a health concern with dreadlocks and afros? It is hair for crying out loud. How is hair gonna harm someone unless you don't take care of it or it mutates into something other wordly?

 Although they did not attend Monday's meeting, Tiana's parents, Terrance and Miranda Parker said no board decision could "change the fact that our 7-year-old daughter Tiana was made to feel that there was something wrong with her appearance, in turn coming home in tears."

Nearly 100 percent of the Deborah Brown Community students are African-American.

 

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