The dress code bans satin caps and bonnets, which are commonly worn by black women to protect their hair. Marie D. De Jesus / AP Carlotta Outley Brown, principal of James Madison High School. A Houston high school has implemented a new dress code — but this one is for the parents. At James Madison High School, parents are no longer permitted on school grounds wearing satin caps or bonnets, hair rollers, pajamas, or leggings. Anything revealing, such as low-cut tops, sagging pants, short-shorts, and "dresses that are up to your behind" are also banned. According to a letter from Principal Carlotta Outley Brown, parents who show up in the forbidden attire won't be allowed in the school until they return in different clothes. “We are preparing your child for a prosperous future,” Brown wrote. “We want them to know what is appropriate and what is not appropriate for any setting they may be in.” The letter was sent to parents a day after a local news station reported that a mother was turned away from the school after she showed up in a T-shirt dress and headscarf. Mother claims she wasn't allowed to enroll daughter in school due to outfit https://t.co/uzLGoRtvPd #kprc2 #HouNews Joselyn Lewis, who was there to enroll her daughter in classes, said she thought an administrator had mistaken her for a student when she wasn't allowed in due to her clothing. “She went on to say that she still couldn’t let me on the premises because I was not in dress code and I still didn’t understand what that meant,” Lewis told KPRC 2 Houston. “She said that my headscarf was out of dress code and my dress was too short.” Lewis said she was wearing the headscarf because she was in the process of getting her hair done. Headscarves, as well as the banned satin caps and bonnets, are commonly worn by black women to protect their hair. When she refused to leave and asked to see a written dress code, they called the police on her, she said. The letter detailing the dress code was sent out the next day. “I’m not saying that it’s a part of my religion, but it could have been, but I just wanted to have it up," Lewis said. "Who are you to say that I can’t wear my hair up? In a scarf? Who are you to tell me how to dress?” A spokesperson for the Houston Independent School District declined to comment, and Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zeph Capo, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, told CNN the policy "seems a little classist." "Having body parts exposed is one thing. Turning someone away because their hair's in rollers ... is a little ridiculous," Capo said. "This is an issue of a principal issuing a dictatorial edict rather than having substantive conversation." The policy is facing widespread criticism, with many people calling it discriminatory for how it disproportionately targets black women. Trying to figure out how bonnets are disruptive and how a hair covering makes an educational environment less educational. The fact that folks can’t see the misogynoir in this parent dress code policy is just... Roni Burren, who teaches at the University of Houston, pointed out how white women don't tend to get kicked out of their kids' schools for "wearing leggings and wet yoga hair." "But folks is OBSESSED with policing Black women's bodies," Burren tweeted. "It's disturbing." I’ll stop here but let me add one last thing: I want all y’all to realize that nobody says anything about Becky™️ wearing leggings and wet yoga hair to their kids’ school. But folks is OBSESSED with policing Black women’s bodies. It’s disturbing. Some have directed their criticism toward the principal, who is a black woman. "Reminder you can be Black and still create, write, enact & enforce anti-Black policies. nothing going wrong in that school has any connection to bonnets," said activist Leslie Mac. On today a high school in Houston, TX set this dress code for PARENTS. The other photo is the Principal who set the new rules. Reminder you can be Black and still create, write, enact & enforce anti-Black policies. nothing going wrong in that school has any connection to bonnets. In an interview on BuzzFeed News' AM to DM, Mac said "you can tell by the specificity of the dress code" how it unfairly targets black women. "It’s a specific policing of black women that we see enacted in policies, especially in school settings, over and over and over again," Mac said. . @LeslieMac discusses the high school principal who created a dress code for parents after a black mother wore a bonnet and shirtdress while trying to enroll her daughter: "I just think it's disturbing that this is where efforts within the school are being placed."<doc-sep>A high school in Houston is gaining attention after recently implementing a new dress code aimed at parents. The announcement from James Madison High School principal, Carlotta Outley Brown, dated April 9, came just one day after a local parent was turned away from the school when she attempted to enroll her daughter in classes. The mother said that the reason behind the denied entry was her clothing. At the time, Joselyn Lewis told Houston station KPRC that administrators at the high school told her that she “was not in dress code.” When she asked to see a dress code document for parents, however, the school couldn’t provide one. Now, a document outlining what parents should not be wearing is living on the homepage of the school’s website. A few items on the list are seemingly inspired by Lewis’ attire, which included a head scarf and t-shirt dress deemed unacceptable by administrators. But other parents have also admitted to feeling upset over the first rule targeting women in bonnets. The principal of James Madison High School in Houston has implemented a new dress code for parents. (Photo: James Madison High School) “I’m almost insulted,” Tomiko Miller, the mother of another Madison High School student, told the Houston Chronicle. “I really think it was discriminatory, the language that was used. It was demeaning. And I’m African-American — and if it’s misty outside and I have a hair bonnet on, I don’t see how that’s anyone’s business.” The president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, Zeph Capo, also spoke to the Houston outlet, and called codes related to women’s hair “classist,” “belittling” and “dismissive.” “Who are you to judge others who may not have the same opportunities that you do?” Capo questioned. “Having a wrap on your head is not offensive. It should not be controversial.” Despite the upset that’s resulted from the dress code, Brown wrote in the letter announcing it that these guidelines were necessary for “preparing our children for the future.” “You are your child’s first teacher,” the letter reads. “Please know we have to have standards, most of all we must have high standards. We are preparing your child for a prosperous future.” Story continues As of Tuesday, it seems that the dress code has only been implemented at this high school. Administrators from Houston Independent School District declined Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment. Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.<doc-sep>Houston’s Madison High School principal Carlotta Outley Brown’s new dress code for parents has caused a firestorm. The dress code forbids parents (read: mothers) from showing up at school wearing bonnets, pajamas, hair rollers and leggings. One mother who was dressed “unacceptably” was not only turned away from enrolling her child in the school, she was threatened with police removal when she protested. Think about that. In a school whose population is majority-minority and low-income, a mother was turned away and threatened with punitive action — potential incarceration — for attempting to enroll her child. Black and brown parents are often stereotyped as not caring enough about their children’s education. To turn parents away because of how they are dressed seems highly counterintuitive. But doing so is one more example of “respectability politics.” Evelyn Higginbotham coined the term to describe the way minority groups police their behavior to fit white standards of decorum and behavior. Respectability politics runs rampant in schools that serve minority students. But it has no place on these school campuses, which should be opening their doors even wider to their students’ parents and guardians. School administrators who institute these punitive practices — punishing students and parents for tardiness with fines, for being out of dress code, and so on — create environments that students and parents want to avoid, not become part of. The administrators say they do this because they value decorum and “high standards,” an arbitrary and classist term that has little evidence-based connection to academic achievement and instead focuses on superficial appearance and conformity. These practices discourage community and, worse, lead to the school-to-prison pipeline. Administrators who institute such practices have lost sight of the ultimate goal: educating the whole child. That’s the goal of “restorative practices.” To disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and encourage attendance and parental participation in their child’s education, administrators must co-create community with their students, their guardians and the entire neighborhood. School leaders who use restorative practices see and value their students’ whole lives. Students and their families are often doing the best they can. Consider the reasons why students might arrive to school out of dress code: They might be living between homes, or have a washing machine that’s not functional, or a family member who’s incarcerated. Austin’s Barrington Elementary Principal Gilma Sanchez doesn’t shame those families. Instead, she keeps a closet of clothes so that students can change instead of missing school. Administrators who aren’t caught up in superficial standards understand that if parents are showing up at their children’s school, they’re there because they value education. How they show up is far less important than that they show up. Taylor is a doctoral student in educational leadership and policy and managing editor of Texas Education Magazine online at UT Austin's College of Education. She writes frequently for Gray Matters. Bookmark Gray Matters. It wears bonnets, pajamas, hair rollers and leggings.<doc-sep>
Screenshot : Twitter FOX2News A public school in Houston, TX has rolled out a dress code for parents that is every bit as racist and gendered as the words “dress code” usually imply. According to the New York Times, the dress code for anyone visiting the campus of James Madison High School, a public school of 1,600 students, prohibits: “revealing and sagging clothing...as well as pajamas, hair rollers and satin caps and bonnets, which are often worn by black women to protect their hair.” The campus of James Madison High is 58% Latinx and 40% black, with three-quarters of its students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, prompting many to point out that these attempts to police appearance are being applied only to this particular community: “Roni Dean-Burren, a former teacher who studies literacy and school discipline and lives in Houston, spoke out on Twitter, saying the rules policed black women’s hair and bodies in ways that were not equally applied to white women “wearing leggings and wet yoga hair to their kids’ school.” In a phone interview, she said the school’s focus should be on student success and family engagement, not on how parents look. “It’s so far down the list of things to be concerned about,” she said.” Others worry that this arbitrary dress code will discourage parents from engaging with their children’s school for fear of being publicly shamed by school officials. Parents have already been turned away for not looking sn azzy enough to suit school authorities: Joselyn Lewis, the mother in Houston who said she was turned away this month because of her attire, told Channel 2 News that she had worn a T-shirt dress and head wrap to enroll her 15-year-old daughter, who was being bullied at another school. Researchers have found that school dress code policies, including restrictions around hairstyles and selectively-enforced rules about the way clothes should fit, disproportionately affect black girls, making it more difficult for them to attend class and adversely impacting their body image and confidence. Going after parents in addition to students seems like it can only make bad policies even more damaging. In an April 9 letter to parents, principal Carlotta Outley Brown told parents, “You are your child’s first teacher...We are preparing your child for a prosperous future...We want them to know what is appropriate and what is not appropriate for any setting they may be in.”