ACLU, NAACP legal experts respond

BY FRANK RADOSEVICH II

GateHouse News Service
PEORIA - A 12-year-old girl barred from school after officials deemed her maroon hair extensions inappropriate will be allowed to return, according to a letter signed by the superintendent of Pleasant Valley School District 62.

In the one-page letter dated Thursday, Superintendent Allen Johnson stated the district "will allow Shawterya (sic) Carter to return to Pleasant Valley Middle School, effective immediately."

Seventh-grader Shawnterya Carter has been banned from her classes since Oct. 30, after the district objected to the color of her extensions. Hair extensions - commonly known as a hair weave - are tightly interwoven braids added to the hair.

Citing the school's ban on any type of inappropriate or distracting clothes or grooming, Carter was sent home and told she could not return until the color was removed from her hair.

Now, the letter continued, the district does not "wish to spend time, effort and funds litigating the issue. The district is also anxious to have Ms. Carter return to school and continue with her education."

Johnson added the school will expunge any reference regarding the disagreement from Carter's school records, and she will be allowed to make up any school work she missed during her absence with no penalties.

Carter's mother, Ebony Neasman, said she was pleased with the outcome and added Carter would return to school Monday - extensions intact - because classes are not in session today.

"It's basically what I wanted, and I think it didn't have to go that far," she said in a telephone interview late Thursday. "I just think this is a learning lesson for all of us. It's taught her to stand up for what she believes in."

Neither Johnson nor Principal Sandy Somogyi could be reached for comment late Thursday.

Johnson's letter responded to an earlier letter signed by Harvey Grossman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois, and Don Jackson, a local attorney and the president of the local and state chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In their letter sent Wednesday, the two attorneys challenged the district's actions and wrote the "exclusion of Shawnterya from school because of the maroon color in her hair is contrary (to) Shawnterya's legally protected rights."

Grossman and Jackson could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

The lawyers contended school policy shows prejudice toward African-Americans by disallowing certain hair colors for students. Students had been told their hair can be highlighted only by what Johnson called the four "natural colors": blond, black, brown and red.

"Many African-American women and girls choose colors like maroon for their hair, while fewer white women and girls do so," the letter read. "Moreover, many African-American women and girls cannot effectively highlight their hair with black or brown colors, and for reasons of cultural and racial pride are opposed to highlighting their hair with the hair colors natural to white women."

Online: http://www.register-mail.com/stories/110907/MAI_BESMHILT.GID.shtml.