“Facing backlash, the elementary school in Tulsa, Okla., that barred 7-year-old Tiana Parker from wearing her hair in dreadlocks has changed its dress-code policy.
Deborah Brown Community School administrators and school board members met on Monday night, and the school board voted to nix the mention of specific hairstyles in the policy.
According to local Tulsa media outlet NewsOn6.com, the charter school’s policy now states, “The Administration reserves the right to contact the parents/guardians regarding any personal hygiene issues that it believes causes a risk to the health, safety and welfare of the student, his or her classmates, and faculty or staff or detracts from the educational environment.”
The school’s policy, which has not yet been updated on its website, previously read, “hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros and other faddish styles are unacceptable.”
Tiana ended up changing schools this year rather than her hairdo, and her family plans to keep her enrolled in her new school despite the policy shift. Tiana’s family released this statement in response to Monday night’s decision:
“We are of course happy for future students and families at Deborah Brown Community School. However, that does not 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. Even now, we have not been contacted by any of the administrators at Deborah Brown Community School nor has an apology been made to our daughter.”
The statement continues, “Regarding next steps, our focus is on Tiana and all of the ‘Tiana’s’ in the world who have ever been made to feel this way. This is now much bigger than Tiana, and we know that the conversation cannot end here.” “
See people like that school make young black girls/women feel like their natural hair is ugly and it need to be permed with chemicals, or be covered up with fake hair just so it’ll look beautiful. How sick! Just to think how many kids get bullied at school, and schools do little about it, but they can go way out of their way to make someone feel bad for the way they look. Yes! they changed their “policy”, but they still made her feel bad, you can’t change that.
source
http://www.today.com/moms/school-barred-7-year-olds-dreadlocks-changes-dress-code-policy-8C11122821
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