HOUSTON – A six-figure settlement was reached for two male Barbers Hill students who were penalized for having long hair and whose widely publicized discriminatory experience inspired the Texas Crown Act.
AZA lawyers were on the pro bono team that represented De’Andre Arnold, Kaden Bradford and De’Andre’s mother Sandy Arnold, who sued the school district in 2020 after it demanded that De’Andre and Kaden cut off their long hair, which honored their Black and Trinidadian heritage.
The case gained national attention and led the Texas Legislature to outlaw this type of discrimination in the Crown Act and other governments to make similar rules.
Until lawyers got an injunction to stop the school district, the two students were forced into special classes and were going to be forced to attend a special school because they stood up for their rights.
“This case dates back six years and has been active the entire time going back and forth from trial court to appellate courts. The trial court recently denied a motion by the school district and ruled that De’Andre and Kaden’s claims for race and sex discrimination, and violations of their First Amendment rights, should head to trial. We were on the eve of the trial when the school district finally offered a good economic solution for the family that could end this and keep them from weeks of trial,” said AZA Of Counsel Nick Petree.
Mr. Petree came to AZA from Akin, where he originally took on this case with the Legal Defense Fund, a national civil rights group. Mr. Petree was prepared to try the case with AZA associates Maha Husseini and Antonio Milton.
Akin lawyers remained on the trial team, as did Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffman & Freudenberger.
The Legal Defense Fund’s press release on what it described as a historic settlement said, “The settlement reflects a significant milestone in the ongoing effort to ensure that no student is denied educational opportunities or subjected to discrimination because of their natural hair or protective hairstyles.“
In the same release, student De’Andre Arnold said, “I’m proud that we stayed committed to seeing this process through and grateful that we’ve reached a resolution to finally close this chapter. I hope that our experience will have a lasting impact and help ensure that other students can pursue their education without having to fight to be accepted as themselves.”
The case is Everett D’Andre Arnold et al. v. Barbers Hill Independent School District case number 4:20-cv-1802 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Houston and Dallas trial boutique Ahmad Zavitsanos & Mensing, or AZA, has earned repeated recognition from Chambers USA among the best in Texas for its commercial law, intellectual property and appellate practices. The firm has been listed by Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms for 15 years; has been named Litigation Department of the Year by Texas Lawyer four times; has five times been named a Most Feared Law Firm in a national survey; and was twice dubbed a Texas Powerhouse law firm by Law360.