News

Lawyer: School hair policy is example of policing 'identity and expression of students'

MALDEN, Mass. — Lawyers and equal rights organizations tell Boston 25 News a policy banning hair extensions is overstepping the bounds of personal expressions.

Boston 25 News first reported the story from Mystic Valley Regional Charter School in Malden after parents reached out about two girls who were being disciplined for their hair.

"We were outraged by what we heard,” Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, Executive Director for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, said.

Sophomore Maya Cook and her younger sister Deana were asked to take out their braids because they violated school policy.

When the girls didn’t comply, they received daily detention and their adoptive mother Colleen Cook said it opened the door for tighter scrutiny at the Malden school.

"All the little black children were marched down for a hair inspection,” Cook said.

With that as motivation, Espinoza-Madrigal’s group drafted a letter and sent it to the school's director claiming the hair and makeup policy violates federal anti-discrimination law because he claims it prohibits African American students from wearing braids in their hair.

"It is one of the most gross examples of a school policing the identity and expression of their students,” he said.

The school policy specifically mentions “distracting hairstyles” like unnatural hair color, shaved lines and extensions, but there is not mention of braids.

Following the media attention, the school sent a letter home to parents Friday reinforcing that fact as it sought to clarify inaccuracies.

"First, our Uniform Policy does not prohibit braids. Second, the school unequivocally did not march a group of students to the office,” the letter said.

The letter goes on to explain that the other hair restrictions are designed to eliminate gaps in socio-economic status, saying: "The specific prohibition on hair extensions, which are expensive and could serve as a differentiating factor between students from dissimilar socioeconomic backgrounds, is consistent with our desire to create such an educational environment."