Wendy Greene, professor of law and director of the Center for Law, Policy and Social Action, discussed the suspension of Darryl George, a Black high school student in Texas who has missed two weeks of school due to an alleged grooming code violation, on a Sept. 20 NBC News broadcast.

The Barbers Hill Independent School District in Texas has suspended Darryl George, a high school junior, twice this school year because of his hairstyle. The district says George’s locs violate its grooming code, which ABC News reports “prohibits male students’ hair from extending below the eyebrows or ear lobes.” The latest suspension was issued the same week Texas’ CROWN Act, which bans race-based hair discrimination in schools, workplaces and housing policies, went into effect.

Greene, who has co-drafted federal and state-level CROWN Acts and testified in support of the legislation, said: “We’re dealing with the policing of a hairstyle, like locs, braids and twists, that African descendants historically and commonly wear and are associated with our racial and cultural identities. It is a form of racial discrimination.”

Watch the video