School In Tulsa Sends Girl Home Saying Dreadlocks And Afros Are Unacceptable

Deborah Brown Community School in Tulsa is the latest school to come under scrutiny because of it’s dress code that affects natural hair. According to Fox23, Tiana a 7 year old was taken out of classes by her father Terrence Parker because of a disagreement with the school that left him feeling that he had no choice.

The officials at the school said that her hair didn’t look “presentable”. Terrence Parker, a barber by trade had this to say:

She’s always presentable. I take pride in my kids looking nice.

Below is a video of the interview.

The school’s dress code states:

Hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable.

The school feels that these hairstyles could distract from the respectful and serious atmosphere it strives for. Tiana, a straight A student is now going to a new school where her hair is not a problem.

BHI is not a news website so I don’t have to be impartial with my opinion. I am absolutely mortified that this little girl, a straight A student no less, has had to be uprooted from her school because of these ridiculous rules. My heart goes out to her.

Her dreads were neat and tidily pulled back so how her hair could possibly be a “distraction from a respectful and serious atmosphere” is beyond me.

Here her dad is trying to do the right thing by teaching his daughter to love her natural hair yet the message that this little girl is getting is that her hair isn’t good enough and it is something that needs to be fixed.

A story similar to this broke a few months back where a school told parents that afro puffs were not allowed. A strange notion because they did not ban ponytails for all children across the board. With an afro puff being a ponytail on natural hair, this rule was clearly discriminatory.

To find out that that rules like these still exist in other schools is rather appalling and it makes one wonder how many schools have similar rules in place.

Between Sheryl Underwood with her “jokes” about natural hair and schools that essentially say that natural hair is not allowed because it is a not presentable, they will have our kids demanding relaxers as soon as they are old enough to talk!

What do you ladies think?