Akin Gump and NAACP LDF File Amended Complaint in Lawsuit Challenging Texas School District’s Discriminatory Hair Policy
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(Houston) – Akin Gump and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) filed an amended complaint today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas adding new facts to support claims of racial and gender discrimination and violations of the 1st Amendment in connection with Barbers Hill (Texas) Independent School District (BHISD)’s hair and grooming policy.
The amended complaint asserts that, not only did BHISD selectively enforce its discriminatory hair policy to target Black students with uncut locs, but, when the discrimination made the local news, BHISD ramped up enforcement of the hair policy against other students in an apparent attempt to conceal the selective enforcement.
To learn more about the case, please click here.
The Akin Gump team working pro bono with the LDF includes senior counsel Roxanne Tizravesh, counsel Nicholas Petree, and associates Christina Hightower, Alyx Eva and Conor Tomalty. The team represents De’Andre Arnold and K.B., who were informed by BHISD in December 2019 that they had to cut their natural locs or they would be banned from participating in regular classes and school activities. Akin Gump and the LDF secured a preliminary injunction last year enjoining enforcement of the school district’s dress and grooming policy against K.B. and allowing him to return to classes and school activities without cutting his locs. Click here to learn more.
Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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