Seminole student will keep braid in school

SLIDELL, La. — An American Indian boy who wears his hair in a braid as part of a religious custom will be allowed to remain at his school after school officials reversed an earlier decision that the child would have to cut his hair or wear his braid in a bun.

Schools Superintendent Gayle Sloan has agreed to let Curtis Harjo, 5, keep his braid, even though the practice goes against the St. Tammany Parish school board’s policy regarding hair length.

"All religions are equally deserving of respect and protection,” said Katie Schwartzmann, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Louisiana chapter, which represented the boy’s family. "Curtis should be allowed to wear his hair in keeping with his religious and cultural identity, just as a Christian student should be allowed to wear a crucifix to school.”

The ACLU and the Native American Rights Fund joined the boy and his mother, Joni Harjo, in their fight against the Florida Avenue Elementary School principal, who said the boy could be expelled if he did not cut his hair.

Many American Indian children in the Harjos’ native Oklahoma wear their hair long as part of a long-standing tradition, Harjo said. As members of the Seminole tribe, the Harjos believe hair should not be cut except when in mourning for a loved one.

Harjo appealed the principal’s decision to the superintendent, who said Curtis would have to pin his hair in a bun to continue at the school.

The complaint suggested officials were discriminating against Curtis based on his religion and ethnicity, saying the two organizations had pictures of other students violating the policy.