Texas School Suspends 11-Year-Old Over Braided Hair

TROY, TX — A Texas mother is demanding change after her 11-year-old son became the latest U.S. student to be punished for his hairstyle.

Maddox Cozart, a Native American and African American student who attends school in the Troy Independent School District, received an in-school suspension for two weeks because of his braided hair, Waco-based ABC affiliate KXXV reported.

Officials cited the school’s dress code as the reason for the punishment, according to the report.

This isn’t the first time Texas students have been singled out over their hair.

In January 2020, Kaden Bradford and De'Andre Arnold, two Black students in the Barbers Hill Independent School District, were informed they would be punished if they refused to cut their hair. Arnold was told he wouldn't be allowed to walk the stage at his May graduation ceremony; and Bradford, Arnold’s cousin, was told he would be placed on indefinite in-school suspension.

A federal judge later ruled the district’s dress code was discriminatory, a decision that prompted the Texas arm of the American Civil Liberties Union to send a letter to nearly 500 school districts across the state asking them to revise dress code policies that it says are "unconstitutional and discriminatory."

the Troy Independent School District was named in the letter.

Currently, Texas has no law protecting against hair discrimination based on style or texture. However, state Rep. Ron Reynolds from Missouri City has introduced H.B. 38, which would change that and ban hair discrimination in the workplace or in schools.

More commonly referred to as the Crown Act, H.B. 38 was referred to the State Affairs Committee in February.

Meanwhile, Maddox’s mother, Hope Cozart, is asking the Troy school district to re-evaluate its policies. She also is considering legal action.

“It’s disheartening. He’s a child,” Cozart told KXXV. “A child shouldn’t have to go through this over hair.”