Ohio School Bans Afro Puffs and Braids

[Emperah]

Ohio School Bans Afro Puffs and Braids

A letter to parents from an Ohio school was posted online and the school now may have to answer questions about their dress code.
Horizon Science Academy outlined what was acceptable student dress and included a ban on some natural hair styles:

The letter details changes to the dress code for the upcoming school year and includes the line:
Afro-puffs and small twisted braids, with our [sic] without rubberbands, are NOT permitted.
It’s unclear what the administration means by small twisted braids, but if they are referring to box braids they are banning a protective style that black girls have worn for generations. Afro-puffs are essentially the black version of the ponytail (when pulled back our hair puffs out instead of laying down), and yet the rules do not have a ban on ponytails for students of other ethnicities.

Read more at Black Girl Long Hair.
The “personal appearance” ban also includes mohawks, hair dye, and body piercings.

Why do schools find the need to police their students’ self-expression to the extent that they would ban natural hairstyles?

Why is this ban necessary?

[j-kid]

Wid more and more women/girls going natural, dem mekking ah come-back.

[jah_yout]

how primitive in thought can these people get? straight savages--- why don't they just ban dark skin as well?

[Blackstar*]

how primitive in thought can these people get? straight savages--- why don't they just ban dark skin as well?

They have indirectly...

[Tropicana]

It is not too long ago that some hotels and airlines including Air Canada banned braids. It was Hyacinth Hope, a Jamaican purser for Air Canada, who grieved this through the union and won the right to wear braids for Air Canada flight attendants. Good for her. She had been grounded for wearing braids.

The battle continues.

[Peasie]

how primitive in thought can these people get? straight savages--- why don't they just ban dark skin as well?

I can tell you more about Ohio than you care to know but dem ban mi hair do

[j-kid]

Braids were banned fi Blacks in many USA corporations even after di movie "10" came out, an dem was looking di odda way wen Whites came in wearing them. As a result yuh had som Black women who showed up at wuk wid dem an challenged di corporation fi discipline dem.

[Peasie]

For high school, my son attended a Catholic high school for boys where the code was appearance was always expected to be neat -uniform, shoes, hair, etc.

Fine. But then some old priest decided to ban braided hair. This was clearly directed to black students who made up some 40% of the student body.

That policy lasted two days.

The day after it was instituted, every student, as far as they could - black, white, Asian, Latino, etc - showed up with neatly braided hair! Old priest was like this but the point was well-taken. Policy changed. The boys decided to stand in solidarity, kept their actions from their parents, etc.. Nothing else was said about the incident.

My belief is this. Unjust things will happen in this life. You can decide whether to accept it or form a group of like-minded folks and decide you ain't gonna stand for nonsense.