Darryl George: Judge dismisses racial discrimination claim in civil rights lawsuit and allows sex discrimination claim to proceed

(CNN) — A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed claims of racial discrimination while allowing claims of sex discrimination to proceed in a federal civil rights lawsuit regarding a Texas student who has faced suspensions and disciplinary actions over the length of his locs hairstyle.

US District Court Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown said in his decision that the claims of racial discrimination in the lawsuit brought by Darryl George, a student at Barbers Hill High School, and his family “have not shown a persistent, widespread practice of disparate, race-based enforcement” of the hair policy.

“At most, the plaintiffs allege only two instances: the allegations underlying George’s case and those underlying the Arnold case also pending in this court,” Brown said, referencing another case of Black teen who was suspended over his hair. “But these two instances alone are insufficient to establish a pattern of conduct going on ‘for so long or so frequently’ that it evinces a ‘persistent, widespread practice’.”

Regarding the claims of sex discrimination, Brown said while the school district gives reasons that show why they have a dress code, “they provide no support for the narrower question that forms the basis of this claim: what is the rationale for the dress code’s distinction between male and female students?”

“Because the District does not provide any reason for the sex-based distinctions in its dress code, the claim survives this initial stage,” Brown said.

The judge dismissed all of the family’s other claims, including infringement of George’s First Amendment free expression rights and request for “compensatory damages and injunctive and declaratory relief” for claims of “mental anguish.”

CNN has reached out to George’s attorneys for comment.

Barbers Hill Independent School District Superintendent Greg Poole said in a statement Wednesday the decision to dismiss the racial claims “validates what our district has maintained throughout this ordeal … high expectations for all students in all things are not racist.”

“Our policies and our procedures for 95 years have been established by our community via a locally elected board of trustees. Having high expectations for all students in all things is why we are one of the highest achieving districts in the state and it is why parents of all ethnicities continue to move to our district in record numbers,” Poole wrote. “Our district will not succumb to a cancerous cancel culture that seeks to intimidate, falsely accuse and use race in a disingenuous way to serve a political end.”

The ruling comes months after a separate federal judge ruled the state’s CROWN Act – a law that prohibits discrimination against hair texture and protective hairstyles like locs and braids that are “commonly or historically associated with race” – does not make it unlawful for school dress codes to limit a student’s hair length, meaning it did not violate state law for the district to continue punishing George for the length of his locs hairstyle.

In the federal lawsuit, George and his attorneys had argued his suspension was a violation of that act and alleged Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton failed to enforce the law, which went into effect September 1.

George and his family were seeking an injunction against Abbott and Paxton to compel them to stop the school district from “exposing BHISD and Texas students to disciplinary punishment and disciplinary measures due to locs, braid, twists and other protective styles that are alleged to be or that are longer than the District or schools’ length requirement.”

Brown in his decision also dismissed the claims against Abbott and Paxton.

Attorneys for Abbott and Paxton had argued for dismissal, citing claims of immunity from lawsuits and saying they do not have “enforcement authority under the CROWN Act, nor do they have a general duty to intervene when a public school district is merely accused of violating a student’s constitutional rights or rights provided under a provision of State law.”

CNN has reached out to attorneys for Abbott and Paxton for comment.

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