A federal judge on Friday denied a request by a Black high school student in Texas for a court order that the student's lawyers say would have allowed him to return to his high school without fear of having his previous punishment over his hairstyle resume. Darryl George had sought to reenroll at his Houston-area high school in the Barbers Hill school district after leaving at the start of his senior year in August because district officials were set to continue punishing him for not cutting his hair, per the AP. George had spent nearly all of his junior year serving in-school suspension over his hairstyle. The district has argued that George's long hair, which he wears to school in tied and twisted locs on top of his head, violates its policy because if let down, it would fall below his shirt collar, eyebrows, or earlobes.
George, who turned 19 on Friday, had asked US District Judge Jeffrey Brown in Galveston to issue a temporary restraining order that would have prevented district officials from further punishing him if he returned and while a federal lawsuit he filed proceeds. But in a ruling issued late Friday afternoon, Brown denied George's request, saying the student and his lawyers had waited too long to ask for the order. George's ask had come after Brown in August dismissed most of the claims the student and his mother had filed in their federal lawsuit alleging school district officials committed racial and gender discrimination when they punished him; the judge only let the gender discrimination claim stand. In his ruling, Brown said he also denied George's request for a temporary restraining order because the school district was more likely to prevail in the lawsuit's remaining claim.
George's lawyer said the student left Barbers Hill High School and transferred to another high school in a different Houston area district after suffering a nervous breakdown over the thought of facing another year of punishment. In court documents filed this week, attorneys for the school district said George didn't have legal standing to request the restraining order because he's no longer a student in the district. The district has defended its dress code, which says its policies for students are meant to "teach grooming and hygiene, instill discipline, prevent disruption, avoid safety hazards, and teach respect for authority." George's federal suit also alleged that his punishment violates the CROWN Act, a recent state law prohibiting race-based discrimination of hair. In February, a state judge ruled in a suit filed by the school district that its punishment doesn't violate the law.
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