MONT BELVIEU, Texas – Six years after two students filed a lawsuit challenging Barbers Hill ISD’s hair policy as discriminatory, the district says it has reached a settlement in the lawsuit.
The district’s Board of Trustees voted Friday to approve a settlement in a lawsuit filed in May 2020 by former students De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford, who challenged the district’s dress code.
The district agreed to a small, undisclosed payment in exchange for dropping all claims. The money will come from the Texas Association of School Boards’ risk management fund, not directly from district tax dollars.
“This arrangement is absolutely a victory,” Barbers Hill ISD Superintendent Dr. Greg Poole said. “All legal charges are dropped, our high expectations, as manifested by our dress code, remain unchanged, and not one single tax dollar will go toward any financial arrangement, regardless of how modest it is.”
Christian Terry covered digital news in Tyler and Wichita Falls before returning to the Houston area where he grew up. He is passionate about weather and the outdoors and often spends his days off on the water fishing.
