Update:  I am deleting this petition.  It was created as a template for a student that is taking this cause to the student body and community to present to the board of education.  As a teacher, I cannot be the owner of this process.  All supporters are made aware verbally as well as this update.  In a society in which hair has historically been one of many determining factors of a person’s race, and whether they were a second class citizen, hair today remains a proxy for race.  The United States and School Dress Code and Grooming policies are largely Eurocentric based.  Therefore, hair discrimination targeting hairstyles associated with race is racial discrimination.

Despite the great strides American society and laws have made to reverse the racist ideology that Black traits are inferior, hair remains a rampant source of racial discrimination with serious economic and health consequences, especially for Black individuals.

The CROWN Act is a law that prohibits “race-based hair discrimination” in employment and education. Although Ohio has not passed a statewide version of the CROWN Act, Newburg Heights, Akron, Columbus, and Cincinnati have all passed the Act at the city level. Many other states and cities have also passed similar legislation across the country.

The CROWN Act updated the Columbus City Code to expand the meaning of “race” to include traits that are historically associated with race, such as hair textures and protective and cultural hairstyles, which consist of:

Braids, Locs, Cornrows, Bantu knots, Afros, Twists

The Act protects these hairstyles regardless of whether hair extensions, treatments, hair ornaments, beads, or head wraps are used.

Why must we act now?

According to research conducted by Dove,

"Our hair is our identity, and it starts young. When a child is denied access to school, or shamed in a way that it’s inherent to their identity, it does, in many cases, irreparable harm. We’ve interviewed many adult women and men about their confidence and challenges in this world. And so many of those stories go back to hair discrimination that they experienced when they were a child.

The horrible names that natural hair and texture were called, and the way it made them feel “less than.” We all know that self esteem and confidence at the early ages, K through 12, is essential. And what we see is that hair discrimination starts as early as [age] 5. Fifty-three percent of the young people we surveyed, young girls in particular, identified that hair discrimination started as early as 5.

And then by the time they’re teenagers, you find 80 percent of girls—in predominantly white institutions particularly—are experiencing hair discrimination."

Let's be the status quo in Wayne County schools and adopt the Crown Act at Wooster City Schools.