By: Madeleine Davies
It's nearing the end of the day, so why not go out with a news story so infuriating that it might actually make your blood boil? A 7-year-old girl named Tiana Parker was recently sent home from Deborah Brown Community School, the charter school she attends in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for failing to comply with school policy. Her violation? Tiana, who is African American, has dreadlocks and school rules state that “hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable.”
Wait, wait, wait. Faddish? Seriously?
Curious how two of the three hairstyles explicitly banned by the school happen to be two of the ways black women can wear their hair without processing it. The term "faddish" also seems remarkably inappropriate considering how human beings have been 'froing and locking their hair for the entirety of our species' existence. That is one hell of a long running fad.
“She went to the school last year and didn’t have any problems,” Terrance Parker, Tiana's father — who happens to be a barber — told KOKI, the local Fox affiliate. “It hurt my feelings to the core.”
He also remarked, “She’s always presentable. I take pride in my kids looking nice.”
Tiana, an A student, now attends a new school.
Spoiler:
