SPLITTING HAIRS
Loophole in new law lets Catholic schools continue ’do bias
A hair-raising loophole in city and state laws meant to crack down on cultural discrimination has actually allowed bans on boys’ braids in more than a dozen Catholic schools, according to legal records.
The same city law that led an Upper East Side salon to be fined a whopping $70,000 for discouraging its black employees from wearing natural hairstyles is turning the other cheek when it comes to Catholic classrooms, and critics say the double standard is anything but divine.
“It makes me very uneasy that the [New York] archdiocese is not going to step in and encourage all of their schools to be compliant with state law,” said Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright (D-Brooklyn), who helped draft the recently passed state Crown Act banning discrimination against natural hair, which disproportionately singles out black men and women.
When Wright helped craft the law, she fully expected it would apply to Catholic schools.
But the law, which Gov. Cuomo signed in July, along with the city’s version from February, has not been enforced in at least 14 of New York City’s Catholic schools, where handbooks spell out bans on natural hair as clearly as the Bible’s book of Exodus spells out the Ten Commandments.
“No cultural preferences will be allowed, such as boys with braided hair,” said a handbook from Christ the King School in the Bronx, which serves elementary and middle-school students.
St. John’s School, also in the Bronx, listed a prohibition against “corn rolls,” even though the appropriate term is “cornrows.”
Eleven other schools in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx also listed the ban, often calling braids a “fad” or “inappropriate” hairstyle for boys, though three schools reached by the Daily News said they no longer enforce the restrictions.
The bans fall into legal loopholes that may keep them out of reach of the new city and state rules, said David Bloomfield, a professor of edu
cation law at Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center.
The state Dignity for All Students Act, which governs discrimination in schools, includes the caveat: “Nothing in this article shall … apply to private, religious or denominational educational institutions,” while the city human rights law exempts any “religious corporation incorporated under the education law.”
“They’re just exempted because they’re religious institutions and can set whatever rules of decorum they wish, no matter how discriminatory or racist,” said Bloomfield, adding that he found the exemptions “very surprising.”
The controversial Catholic school hair bans caught the attention of city and state officials last month after the Daily News exclusively reported that Queens mother Lavona Batts sued Immaculate Conception Catholic Academy in Jamaica, Queens, for telling her 9-yearold son to ditch his braids or leave, invoking city and state hair discrimination law.
Both Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio ripped the school’s policy as “unacceptable” and promised action.
But city officials have been cautious so far, partly because of the Catholic schools’ murky status under city law.
The city Commission on Human Rights, which enforces discrimination law, offered training and education materials to Immaculate Conception after Batts filed the lawsuit. But the school rebuffed the city’s offer, and directed officials to the Brooklyn Diocese.
The city took a stricter line with Sharon Dorram Color at Sally Hershberger, an upscale Upper East Side salon, after multiple employees complained that management discouraged black employees from wearing natural hair because it didn’t fit the salon’s image.
Dorram, the salon’s colorist, wrote in a text message that black employees who wore natural hair made the salon “look like we should be on E. 134th Street,” according to The New York Times. In addition to the hefty fine, the salon was required to partner with a salon that specialized in black hair and complete community service.
The salon declined to discuss the case with The News.
Conversations with the Brooklyn Diocese are going well, said city officials. Brooklyn Diocese spokesman John Quaglione said the diocesan superintendent “requested that all of our academies and schools closely examine their hair policy.
But officials at the New York Archdiocese, which oversees nine of the schools with natural hair bans still in their handbooks, is still backing its schools.
“Families attending any Catholic school agree to adhere to the terms of the school’s handbook, which will include guidelines on hair, wardrobe and personal conduct,” said T.J. McCormack, a spokesman for the archdiocese, which supervises Catholic schools in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten
Island.
Despite the hard-line stance, city officials said they have not received hair-related complaints from parents in the New York Archdiocese.
Even so, at least one legal critic said the handbook bans may not hold up in court.
Chaumtoli Huq, a professor at CUNY School of Law who specializes in labor discrimination, said judges in past court cases have ruled that the religious exemption from anti-discrimination law only applies under limited circumstances.
“This exemption was intended to protect a religious organization’s free exercise of religion,” said Huq. “I can’t imagine any religious mission to prohibit a black child from wearing a hairstyle that is unique to being black.”