In October I posted a diary about a five-year-old boy who was being kept from attending his kindergarten class because he continued to wear his hair in two long braids, as his American Indian culture required.
Adriel Arocha's family had just moved to the Needville school district and had had a correspondence over several months with the school's administration about his hair, explaining their beliefs, and asking for a waiver of the school district policy that boys' hair should be short.
The board required him to braid his hair into a single braid, and wear it under his shirt. When his parents refused to impose this on Adriel, he was taken out of his kindergarten class, and kept in in-school detention, isolated from other children. I opined that this was a form of child abuse, and I still think so. I kept looking on the ACLU site for more information, but as far as I can tell, detention continued until a judge ruled that this violated his First Amendment rights in January, 2009.
The Needville School District has filed an appeal with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The ACLU reports that five amicus briefs in support of the lower court's decision have been filed by 11 organizations.
A total of five briefs in support of the ACLU's position have been submitted to the appeals court by the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas; Indian scholars Mr. K. Tsianina Lomawaima and Ms. Suzanne L. Cross; Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Anti-Defamation League; the Nansemond Indian Tribal Association of Virginia; and the American Jewish Committee, Hindu American Foundation, Interfaith Alliance, Sikh Coalition and United Sikhs.
This is far-ranging support for a little boy. I had to smile when I read the list. But this simply shows how important this case is. Punishing a kindergarten student for wearing his hair in neat braids is outrageous, and gave exactly the wrong message not only to Adriel, but to his classmates as well. I cannot fathom what induced the school district to appeal the first decision. Racism is one thing, but I do not understand how they hope to win on appeal.