<h1 class="story_headline">Trooper Taylor's son sues school system over hairstyle</h1><div id="fbr_001" class="content_fbrecommend">By Joe McAdory <span class="divider">|</span> Staff writer
<span class="article_info_stamps">Published: December 10, 2010</span></div><div class="article_font" sizset="31" sizcache="38"><p class="Body">Auburn Junior High ninth-grader Blaise Taylor, 14-year-old son of Auburn University assistant football coach Trooper Taylor, is suing the school system for the right to wear braided hair during junior varsity basketball games.</p><p class="Body">The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, asks the court to “issue a temporary restraining order, allowing him to continue to play basketball with the junior varsity with the junior varsity team at Auburn High School, without having to remove his braided hairstyle, pending a further hearing date being set on plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction.” It is also seeking a hearing for a permanent injunction.</p><p class="Body">The suit was filed against the Auburn City Schools Board of Education, basketball Coach Frank Tolbert, Superintendent Dr. Terry Jenkins, principal Dr. Todd Freeman and Athletics Director Clay McCall.</p><p class="Body">According to the suit:</p><p class="Body">* Taylor has “already lost the ability to play four basketball games because he has not been willing to shave or remove his braids in order to play basketball.</p><p class="Body">* Taylor has been racially discriminated against and his freedom of speech was violated. The suit claims the hairstyle is “socio-culturally African-American and is racially-discriminatory for the defendants to prevent him from playing basketball simply due to the hairstyle, while allowing Causcasian students with more unkempt and messy hairstyles to play basketball.”</p><p class="Body">* The hairstyle is a “matter of great principle and identity as far as his African heritage and Afro-American culture is concerned, in that he considers his hairstyle to be expressive conduct, protected by the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.”</p></div>
<span class="article_info_stamps">Published: December 10, 2010</span></div><div class="article_font" sizset="31" sizcache="38"><p class="Body">Auburn Junior High ninth-grader Blaise Taylor, 14-year-old son of Auburn University assistant football coach Trooper Taylor, is suing the school system for the right to wear braided hair during junior varsity basketball games.</p><p class="Body">The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, asks the court to “issue a temporary restraining order, allowing him to continue to play basketball with the junior varsity with the junior varsity team at Auburn High School, without having to remove his braided hairstyle, pending a further hearing date being set on plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction.” It is also seeking a hearing for a permanent injunction.</p><p class="Body">The suit was filed against the Auburn City Schools Board of Education, basketball Coach Frank Tolbert, Superintendent Dr. Terry Jenkins, principal Dr. Todd Freeman and Athletics Director Clay McCall.</p><p class="Body">According to the suit:</p><p class="Body">* Taylor has “already lost the ability to play four basketball games because he has not been willing to shave or remove his braids in order to play basketball.</p><p class="Body">* Taylor has been racially discriminated against and his freedom of speech was violated. The suit claims the hairstyle is “socio-culturally African-American and is racially-discriminatory for the defendants to prevent him from playing basketball simply due to the hairstyle, while allowing Causcasian students with more unkempt and messy hairstyles to play basketball.”</p><p class="Body">* The hairstyle is a “matter of great principle and identity as far as his African heritage and Afro-American culture is concerned, in that he considers his hairstyle to be expressive conduct, protected by the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.”</p></div>
