Mont Belvieu is a small town 40 miles east of Houston and by according to Wikipedia, an affluent small town. According to Data USA (https://datausa.io/profile/geo/mont-belvieu-tx), it has a population of 5200 people, a median income is $94,400, with a poverty rate of 5.4% and a median age of 37.9. Sounds like an enlightened community? Right? WRONG.

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The headline on a CBS site reads: Texas teen told he won’t be able to walk at graduation unless he cuts his dreadlocks.(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dreadlocks-graduation-ceremony-texas-teen-suspended-told-he-wont-be-walking-because-of-hair-dress-code/).

In a country that is tearing itself apart at the seams, the Barber’s Hill School District in Mont Belvieu, Texas widens the gap between races in its little part of the world and answers the age-old question: “Why are there are more horse’s butts in the world than there are horses?” Keep reading and I will explain how.

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An African-American graduating senior in BHSD was recently told that he would not be able to participate in graduation if he continues to wear his hair in dreds. I bet you thought schools had ridded themselves of that silly nonsense long ago. Wrong again.  Although you might think that the federal courts are consistent when it comes to this issue, unlike student speech, the question of regulating hairstyles remains a very murky issue often different with different decisions depending on the region of the country.  

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As my former law students know, I always try to be bound by legal decisions when confronted with potential issues of Constitutional importance. However, this issue in Mont Belvieu, Texas does not require a court to give proper guidance to the BHDS school board. A few simple and logical questions should do the trick. 

1. Is this a Constitutional Issue? Probably not as noted above.
2. What kind of person is Deandre Arnold, the senior in BHDS? From all accounts, he is not a troublemaker.
3. What kind of student is Deandre Arnold? From all accounts, a good student. Indeed, with grades good enough to graduate, which he will do regardless of marching or not marching.
4. Are there other students allowed to wear hair over their collars? I must assume that female students often wear this style.
5. Are there other students with curly hair allowed to wear hair down to and over their collars?  Again, having worked most of my 36 years directly in secondary schools, I have observed many females who wore curly hair over their collars. 
6. What message about community values does this decision send? Obviously, HOW a kid looks is more important to BHDS than WHO that kid is inside, and in this case, the values are Black and White. 

This entire blog can best be summarized by a quote from back in 1900 by the great Mark Twain, who said, In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

As a final aside, I betcha that if Deandre Arnold should get a scholarship to the University of Texas and runs for 1000 yards as a freshman running back, he and his dreds will plastered all over the Mont Belvieu, Texas Baytown Sun’s sports pages and all those BHSD idiots (Twain’s word, not mine!) will be cheering him to high heaven.