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Dress Codes
The Texas ACLU sent letters (Sept. 2) to nearly 500 Texas school districts asking them to revise dress code policies that it says are unconstitutional and discriminatory.
The letter cites a federal judge’s order (Aug. 17) granting a preliminary injunction preventing the 6,258-student Barbers Hill ISD from enforcing a dress code policy that would require BHISD high school student Kaden Bradford, who is Black, to cut his dreadlocks.
Bradford is the cousin of De’Andre Arnold, who drew international attention — including receiving a $20,000 college scholarship given him on a national TV talk show and a trip to the Oscars — after refusing to cut his dreadlocks.
The parents of Bradford and Arnold withdrew them from BHISD last school year and enrolled them in neighboring Goose Creek ISD, where Arnold graduated and Bradford plans to return to BHISD as a junior for the new school year.
The district contends that the issue was over violations of policies addressing the length of male students’ hair, and was not about dreadlocks or race.
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School Bus Tragedy
A Killeen ISD school bus driver who was fired the day after being cited by police for failing to activate the warning lights on his bus at the appropriate time — reportedly contributing to a student being struck by a passing pickup truck — later committed suicide, Killeen police told local media.
The chain of events (recounted here) reportedly started on Monday, Aug. 31 — the first day of in-person instruction for KISD — when a middle school student was struck by the pickup truck after the student ran in front of the stopped bus after exiting the bus. The pickup was traveling in the same direction as the bus. The student was hospitalized in stable condition after being airlifted to an area hospital.
The 12-year-veteran KISD bus driver was found dead in a private vehicle at a lake with a gunshot wound to the chest. His death was ruled a suicide, authorities reported.