A 17-year-old high schooler from Florida is the latest black girl to be reprimanded for wearing her hair in traditional black style. All over the world, black girls have their bodies, words and increasingly, hair, policed by those who have no clue.
WCTV reports that Jenesis Johnson, an 11th Grader at North Florida Christian, a private school in Tallahassee, Fla., has been wearing an afro for the last seven months.
About two weeks ago, a teacher asked Jenesis in front of the class, “How long are you rocking that hairstyle?”
When it was all said and done, this young girl’s beautiful, voluminous, natural hair was deemed “extreme” “out of control” and a distraction.
“She said that my hair needs to be fixed, it was not neat and needs to be put in a style,” said Jenesis to WCTV. “My hair is fixed.”
Two days later the junior was called into the assistant principal’s office.
“She said your hair is extreme and faddish and out of control. It’s all over the place,” Jenesis recalled.
Jenesis says she was told her hair was against school rules. According to North Florida Christian School’s student handbook, there shall be “No faddish or extreme hairstyles, and hair should be neat and clean at all times. The administration will make the decision on any questionable styles.”
Jenesis and her mother Lisa Johnson were told Jenesis could finish the last week of school this school year, however, if she didn’t change her hair, the school would give them a refund for the next semester.
“It hurts me,” says Jenesis. “For my people behind me, the younger ones, they’re going to have hair like me. Why can’t they wear their natural hair?”
Johnson said, “You might say that it didn’t fit the handbook. But what I saw, and what she heard is a woman telling her that she’s not pretty; her hair does fit society.”
They bout to get sued.
Source: The Root|| By Angela Helm
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