The Deacon's Bench
“For too long, kids who look like Jediah have been treated as less than because of the texture of their hair. It’s unacceptable, it’s appalling.”
A Queens Catholic school’s hair policy banning cornrows has infuriated city and state officials — and prompted calls for an investigation of stringent guidelines that forced one mom to yank her little boy from his third grade class rather than chop off his braids.
As the Daily News exclusively reported, Jediah Batts, 8, was told in September that the braids he so proudly wore didn’t cut it at Immaculate Conception Catholic Academy in Jamaica — a ban that his mom, Lavona Batts, is now challenging in Queens Supreme Court. According to the lawsuit she filed Monday, the hair policy violates both city and state rules on hair discrimination.
Gov. Cuomo, whose younger brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, attended the school as a youngster according to ABC News, signed a law in July banning hair discrimination. And Cuomo spokesman, Jason Conwall, labeled the Batts’ experience as “discrimination” and “completely unacceptable.”
City officials unveiled similar guidance in February, prohibiting schools and businesses from banning traditionally black hairstyles like cornrows and locs.
On Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio said he’d be “looking into this.”
“For too long, kids who look like Jediah have been treated as less than because of the texture of their hair. It’s unacceptable, it’s appalling and that’s why we’ve BANNED it in New York City.My team’s looking into this,” he tweeted.
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