Phoenix charter school apologizes after student with braids was sent home

A few days before picture day, Brittany Anderson took her son to get his hair rebraided so it would be as perfect as possible.

Nasir, 12, had been growing out his hair since August and wearing it in braids since October, in a style with two braids running from his forehead to the nape of his neck.

When picture day came Jan. 31, within minutes of arriving at the Phoenix school, Nasir was sent to the office and then told to go home for breaking Teleos Preparatory Academy's dress code for wearing braids.

"Mom, what did I do wrong?" Nasir asked Anderson on the phone as she headed to his school. She didn't know — she thought the Great Hearts Academies charter school's policy just required neatly-maintained hair.

School defends policy, then reverses decision

When Anderson arrived in the office, she challenged why her son was being sent home and said she was told the braids broke policy. But she said no one showed her the actual handbook.

Furious, she withdrew Nasir from the school and enrolled him elsewhere that day.

She posted about the incident on Facebook, eventually drawing the attention of national media.

Anderson said she later found out that the family handbook for sixth through eighth grades prohibits boys from wearing "shaved heads, Mohawks, rat’s tails, pony tails, or braids."

Great Heart Academies, of which Teleos is part, released a statement that week defending the policy, adding that if parents don't agree with it, they can send their children to a different school.

A week later, the school changed its tone.

Great Hearts' superintendent of its Arizona schools, Robert Wagner, issued a statement Wednesday saying officials will review the policy to be "sensitive to the cultural diversity we are proud to have in our academies" and that Nasir is welcome back at school without changing his hair.

Hair policies a growing concern across U.S.

Across the country, parents and advocates have drawn attention to school policies that disproportionately affect students of color and result in them missing class more often than their white peers. Others have criticized the fact that policies prohibiting braids or puffs indirectly tell black kids that their natural hair is unacceptable.

The ACLU of Arizona released a statement Tuesday calling on Great Hearts "to eliminate grooming policies that target children of color."

"No child should be forced out of school because their hair violates an arbitrary policy that almost exclusively applies to children of color," ACLU of Arizona Executive Director Alessandra Soler said in the statement. "Great Hearts needs a wakeup call."

The Arizona Legislature in 2016 passed a law protecting student athletes who choose to wear a religious or cultural hair piece during games. That year, an Arizona Interscholastic Association referee had ordered several Flagstaff High School girls basketball players to remove the traditional Navajo hair buns before a game.

The law forbids a school district governing board, charter school or interscholastic athletic association from preventing a student from wearing religious or cultural accessories or hair pieces while participating in extracurricular or athletic activities, as long as it doesn't pose a safety issue.

'It’s not just my kid I’m doing this for'

Anderson said she and Nasir are mixed race, black and Hispanic, but she doesn't think this case is a racial issue.

Instead, she's upset the school failed to communicate with her. She said there were plenty of opportunities to talk to her about his hair during parent-teacher conferences, but instead, the school's first move was to kick him out of class.

"If they would have told me in the beginning of the year kids can’t have braids in their hair, then I would have cut it back. I don’t have a problem with uniform policy," Anderson said.

"It hurts to have your child ask you what did they do wrong that they have to leave school," she said. "That’s the part that troubles me the most, that (the school) made him feel like it was his problem."

Anderson said Nasir was pulled out of class on Teleos Prep's 100th day of school, which is the last day that determines how much state money the school will receive. She also said she won't be sending him back.

"The parent who signed their kid out prior to mine signed their kid out for the same exact reason," she said. "It’s not just my kid I’m doing this for."

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