Mystic Valley Charter School is in the news again for discriminating against Black students who wore braids in their hair. According to a report in the Boston Globe, two students are being punished for violating the school’s dress code:
Black students at a Malden charter school who wear their hair in braids are facing detention and suspension by administrators who say the hairstyles violate the school’s dress code. Parents describe the crackdown as racist.
Colleen Cook, whose twin 15-year-old daughters, Deanna and Mya, attend the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, said Thursday evening that her children have served multiple detentions since last week and could be suspended…
This is not the first time the school has been in the news. A short while ago the school sued a teacher for $6,087 in damages after he gave notice in May to leave for a better job in a public school system. And in another case, a parent pulled her child who has ADHD out of the school because he was constantly being suspended for wanting to move around more freely than the strict school policy allowed. See the history of the charter’s indiscretions in the comments on a Universal Hub article.
The case at hand is so outrageous that even the Massachusetts Charter School Association has weighed in, disavowing the school’s actions.