Girl gets removed from Catholic middle school for hairstyle: 'This decision is going to affect black children more than white children'

Faith Fennidy
Faith Fennidy, a middle school student in Louisiana, got sent home for her hairstyle. (Photo: Facebook/steven.fennidy)

An 11-year-old middle schooler was removed from her Catholic private school on Monday, after administrators reportedly cited her hair extensions and style as a dress code violation.

Arriving to her first day of 6th grade at Christ the King Parish School, Faith Fennidy was ready to reenter the halls she had walked through for two years prior. But what she didn’t know was that a change had been made to the dress code, suddenly making her back to school hairstyle a problem for the school’s principal. A notice that was sent to her in class led to the tween shedding tears in the main office, before she was eventually escorted out of the building alongside her parents and brother.

Taking to Facebook, Faith’s brother Steven posted a video of the incident, which has been viewed over one million times — inciting outrage over what racial implications the new rule might have.

“My sister Faith and many little black girls wear extensions. She’s been attending this school for two years and wearing extensions. Over the summer the school has sneakily added in a policy that no extensions, clip-ins or weaves are allowed,” he wrote. “Extensions make the hair easier to maintain. It allows my sister to have access to the swimming pool without having to get her hair Re-done every night. How do you make a policy without even having a discussion. It’s because you don’t care and it’s just one more barrier to entry for black people. This decision is going to affect black children more than white children.”

This particular situation is different from others that have made headlines as a result of schools making guidelines for the way that students wear their natural hair. Most recently, a 6-year-old boy in Florida was removed from his school for wearing his natural dreadlocks. However, this Louisiana-based Catholic school has allegedly said that the fact that Faith’s hairstyle incorporated unnatural hair is the problem.

The Christ the King Parish School didn’t immediately reply to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment. However, the Archdiocese of New Orleans released a written statement on Tuesday from Superintendent RaeNell Billiot Houston to WGNO, which read:

Archdiocese of New Orleans schools develop policies appropriate for their respective schools. Christ the King Elementary School has a policy that states: “Boys and Girls: Only the students’ natural hair is permitted.”

This policy was communicated to all parents during the summer and again before the first day of school, and was applied to all students. Furthermore, the school leadership worked with families as needed to ensure compliance.

School administrators additionally told the network that the family was informed of their daughter’s violation the week prior, when the first day of school actually took place. And although Faith had her hair re-done that Friday, it still wasn’t in compliance with the dress code when she arrived the next week. “At that point the parent made the decision to remove her child from the school,” an administrator said.

People across the country have responded to the incident, including activist Shaun King and rapper T.I.

Christ the King school in Gretna,La. You are deplorable!!! A true disgrace to the very thing your school’s name says it represents. How do you feel that this is a proper representation of what Jesus Christ the King & how he would want us to treat our children? You should be ashamed of yourselves…although I know you aren’t. This young lady is beautiful and her hair is perfectly fine. Unless of course you have an issue with black people’s hair in generally? Or is it that you intended to publicly ostracize & humiliate these young ladies so they’d be ashamed of who they are and how they look… making them feel inadequate because they aren’t YOUR version of beautiful? That’s the only explanations I can conceivably come up with. TO THESE BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADIES who endured this covert application of bigotry disguised as school policy… I want you to know this… Your hair is beautiful. Your skin is beautiful. Your minds are beautiful. And not only that… you’re so undeniably beautiful & brilliant that you threaten anyone who tells you otherwise, to the point that they’re willing to stoop to levels as low as this to discourage you,so you’ll give up on your goals and never reach the levels of greatness they know await you. Please DONT LET THEM WIN!!! Please Just know the world is full of ignorant,hateful, insecure, inferior, demonic assholes. They want nothing more than to block your blessings by creating doubt in your minds, fueled by the false illusion of you not being good enough. But DONT BELIEVE THAT BULLSHIT!!!! YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH-nah BETTER THAN ANYBODY WHO TRIES TO MAKE YOU FEEL OTHERWISE. FUCK EM🖕🏽FUCK EM🖕🏽FUCK EM ALL!!! and tell em TIP said that… not TI!!!! Parents Please let me know if there’s ANY WAY POSSIBLE for me to be helpful. #HowDareYall #YourEnemyShouldntSchoolYourChildren

A post shared by TIP (@troubleman31) on Aug 20, 2018 at 1:58pm PDT

How do you feel that this is a proper representation of what Jesus Christ the King & how he would want us to treat our children?” T.I. wrote on Instagram. “You should be ashamed of yourselves…”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

‘Finally feeling true to myself’: TV reporter goes viral for rocking her natural hair on air for the first time
What the Navy’s new hair policy means to me as a black woman
Texas high school causes outrage with dress code video targeting female students in athletic shorts

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