Page 47 - BusinessWest November 28, 2022
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                A Heads Up
What Employers and Schools Should Know About the CROWN Act
By BrianEa Dawkins
ffective Oct. 24, Massachusetts joined
17 other states in passing the Creating a
Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, which bans discrimination against employees, students, and other indi-
The Massachusetts version of the CROWN Act amends the definition of ‘race’ contained in the state’s Fair Employment Practices Act, as well as other Massachusetts laws specifically applicable to schools, to include protection against such
2017, two Black 15-year-old sisters, Deanna and Mya Cook, were reprimanded at the Boston-area high school in Massachusetts for wearing braid- ed hair extensions. At the time, the school had a hair and makeup grooming policy that prohibit-
ed hair extensions. The Cook sisters faced sev- eral hours of detention, were threatened with suspension, and, among other reprimands, were even barred from participating on the school’s sports teams after they refused to take down their protective hairstyles.
Thanks to the tenacity and grace of the Cook sisters, the issue reached a very public audience. The Massachusetts attorney gen- eral wrote a letter to the school informing the school that the grooming policy was discrimi- natoryandinviolationofstateandfederallaw. The Cook sisters’ case also caught the atten- tion of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts,aswellastheNAACP.Then
California state Sen. Holly Mitchell drafted the first CROWN Act legislation in 2019, empower- ing California to take the lead as the first state to enact this legislation.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed the CROWN Act into Massachusetts law earlier this
CROWN
Continued on page 71
 “To ensure compliance with the CROWN Act, employers and schools may want to consider avoiding language in their grooming or personal appearance policies that categorizes specific hairstyles or textures as ‘unkempt’ or, in the alternative, ‘socially acceptable.’ Such choice of words can create a pre-
”
     sumption that some hairstyles or textures are less socially acceptable than others.
 viduals on the basis of natural or protective hairstyles historically associated with race. The act applies to Massachusetts employ-
ers as well as all Massachusetts school districts, school committees, public schools, non-sectari- an schools, and places of public accommodation. At the federal level, CROWN Act legislation has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is pending in the U.S. Senate.
discrimination on the basis of traits historically associated with race, including, but not lim- ited to, hair texture, hair type, hair length, and ‘protective styles,’ which include braids, locks, twists, Bantu knots, hair coverings, and other formations.
The enactment of the CROWN Act in Mas- sachusetts was founded in an incident that occurred at a Greater Boston charter school. In
      IN MEMORY OF
ROBERT A. GELINAS
(1930—2022)
Longtime partner, trusted mentor and valued friend.
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