The superintendent of Barbers Hill Independent School District in Texas is defending the repeated suspensions of a Black student over his hairstyle.

Darryl George, 18, has been suspended from regular classes at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas since last August. Officials at the school said his twisted dreadlocks fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violated the district’s dress code.

As a result of the repeated suspensions George has spent majority of his junior year outside of his regular classroom.

In a full page ad published by the Houston Chronicle on Sunday, district superintendent Greg Poole, defended the suspensions arguing, “being an American requires conformity.”

“The problem with relaxing standards without any regard to academic implications is the precedent it creates,” Poole writes. “Our military academics at West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs maintain a rigorous expectation of dress. They realize being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity and being a part of something bigger than yourself.”

George’s family has filed a lawsuit arguing that the district’s policy violates Texas CROWN Act, a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of hairstyles “commonly or historically associated with race”. 

But, the district argued the CROWN Act does not address hair length and has also filed a lawsuit in state district court seeking clarification on whether its policy limiting male students hair length violates the act.

“We are not in violation of the CROWN Act,” Poole writes in his letter, adding “we have taken the highly unusual step of seeking a declaratory judgement in state district court to verify our interpretation.”

Poole’s letter also said George moved to the district from one that allows longer hair and that every family signed an agreement to follow the district’s dress code. George’s mother said she filed a religious exemption application that was denied by the school principal. 

Poole’s ad was in response to an op-ed published by the Houston Chronicle last month.

In the article, the paper’s editorial board argued that punishing a student over his hair doesn’t “support the betterment of the whole.”

“In fact, “the whole” would be better served if the district set a good example for young, impressionable minds by following the spirit of the law,” the editorial board wrote.