LIBERTY-EYLAU, TX (KSLA) - An East Texas school district is back-tracking on the threat of
disciplining two students over their hair color, which they initially
claimed was believed to be a symbolic of gang affiliation.
Tameka Brooks checked her kids out of Liberty
Eylau Middle School Monday, after school officials ordered them to dye
their hair black or cut it off or face placement in an alternative
education program.
"All of a sudden a month before school, 'Cut
it off, because of issues with gangs here.' And I don't think it's
right," Brooks complained. Her sons, Darren and Carlus, are among
several students with a reddish-color streak in their hair. It's a look
that Superintendent Nick Blain believed was associated with a gang in
the Texarkana area, even though the students that were being asked to
remove the color are not necessarily members of the gang.
"It was the decision coloration was tied to a
gang," explained Blain on Monday. "That was based on a report we got
from the police department and our chief of police." Therefore, the
school district decided that students who do not remove the dye would be
put in an alternative education program.
But on Tuesday, Blain announced that the
students will not be sent home after all, because the Texarkana, Texas
Police Department has since clarified that they are not associating the
hair coloring with any kind of gang activity. "We have had no calls of
criminal activity where the suspects have any type of coloring in their
hair," Texarkana, Texas Police Sgt. Steve Shelly explains.
Still, Blain defends his original decision, "It was strictly a step to offer a safe environment for our students."
As for Darren and Carlus Brooks, there is no
going back to Liberty Eylau. Their mother says she has already enrolled
them in another school district, one she says "never said anything about
my children's hair." She says her kids "hate it. That was home to them,
and they will be a leper forever, but this right here forced them out."
Some East Texas parents are upset with school officials, who ordered their children's hair either be cut or dyed out of concern their styles could be a symbol of gang activity.
