Several valley school districts violate the C.R.O.W.N Act

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The American Civil Liberties Union sent letters to five Rio Grande Valley school districts, alerting them that they were violating the 2023 C.R.O.W.N Act.

The C.R.O.W.N Act was signed into the Texas legislature by Gov. Greg Abbott and put into effect in September of 2023. It stands for creating a respectful and open world for natural hair and it prohibits the discrimination of race-based hairstyles.

Harlingen ISD, Ramondville ISD, La Feria ISD, Roma ISD and La Villa ISD were among the 51 Texas school districts the ACLU found incompliant with the C.R.O.W.N Act.

Charelle Lett, a legal fellow with ACLU, said several school districts quickly responded to the letters stating they were changing their policies to comply with the Texas law.

"Right now, as far as the Crown Act is concerned, it is limited to hairstyles and protective styles that are traditionally and historically limited to black people in the sense that it’s like afros, cornrows, braids and twists," Lett said.

Lett said while the law protects against certain hairstyles, it still opens the door for race discrimination based on gender.

"The law doesn't necessarily stop discrimination based on gender," Lett said. "When it comes to boys' hair length rules, the schools would be able to discriminate on the basis of boys hair length legally as the law is right now."

ValleyCentral reached out to the five Valley school districts regarding their violations. Raymondville and La Feria released statements that they were planning to review and change their policies before the 2024-25 school year.

Lett said rural cities were the most likely to violate the Crown Act, adding that those cities are used to the historical political narrative behind professional hair. She also said she doesn't believe all the schools who violated the act did it intentionally.

“I don’t think it's necessarily intentional that schools have these policies in place but I do think that the discriminatory history of these policies hold true regardless of what their intentions are," Lett said.

The ACLU is hoping that the letters will lead to a change in policy or collective support by the community.

“Whether it's electing new school board members or advocating to the school board at school board meetings to change these policies, we strongly believe that litigation should be a last resort in a situation like this where it's really on the schools to protect their own community and protect their own students," Lett said.