The grandmother of a 4-year-old Texas boy is outraged and believes her grandson is being discriminated against after she says his school told him he had to change the way he wore his long hair.
Randi Woodley’s grandson Michael came home after school one day and told her “there’s something wrong with my hair.”
Woodley, who has legal custody of Michael, then met with the school’s superintendent to see what the issue was.
“He told me that I could either cut it, braid it and pin it up, or put my grandson in a dress and send him to school and when prompted, my grandson must say he's a girl," she told local television station KETK.
The school district’s dress code states online: “No ponytails, ducktails, rat-tails, male bun or puffballs shall be allowed on male students. All male hair of any type shall not extend below the top of a t-shirt collar, as it lays naturally.”
Woodley and other parents believe the dress code discriminates against African American boys, which is why they held a board meeting to demand the school make changes.
Kambryn Cox is a mother of a 5-year-old boy at Michael’s school who was also told his hair needed to change.
“With my son's dreadlocks, sometimes they do fall in front of his face,” Cox told KETK. “So I felt it would be easier to put his hair up, but then that's a problem."
Woodley took to Facebook to share her frustrations with her grandson’s school.
Following the attention she received over social media, a woman by the name of Rachel Raye started a petition on the website Change.org.
Titled, “The Civil Rights Violation of a Four Year Old African-American Tatum, Texas Boy,” it has generated over 4,000 signatures as of Friday.
Woodley believes that “hair has nothing to do with learning.”
