1.jpg

Deanna Cook, left, with mother Colleen Cook and twin sister Mya Cook.

(Family photo)

After her daughters received multiple detentions and could face suspension for wearing their hair in braids, Colleen Cook - a charter school parent in Massachusetts - is speaking up.

Cook's twin 15-year-old daughters are students at the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School in Malden.

When the teenagers arrived to school with their hair in braids, the sisters received detention.

"They teach them at a very high academic level and I appreciate that, and that's why they go to the school," Cook told the Boston Globe. "But, unfortunately, they don't have any sensitivity to diversity at all."

Braids with extensions are a hairstyle banned by the charter's dress code, as extensions are not allowed. The school's dress code also bans unnatural hair colors, makeup and nail polish. Cook told the Globe the policy regarding hair extensions disproportionately affects black students.

The parents of two other students told FOX25 they were barred from participating in school sports and activities - including this spring's prom - for refusing to take out their braids.

Just under 1,500 students are enrolled at the K-12 school this year. The majority of students - 53.4 percent - are white, with 17 percent identifying as black, 17.2 percent as asian, 7.8 percent as latino and 4.4 as multiracial.

Following public criticism, the school has defended the policy saying it promotes equity "by focusing on what unites our students and reducing visible gaps between those of different means," reads a statement released by the school.

"Our policies, including those governing student appearance and attire, foster a culture that emphasizes education rather than style, fashion, or materialism," the school said in a statement. "Our policy on hair extensions, which tend to be very expensive, is consistent with, and a part of, the educational environment that we believe is so important to our students' success."