Bullock filed for a religious exemption on behalf of her son with the district’s superintendent. The request, however, was denied.

“The exemption request you filed has not been granted at this time,” Courtney Hudgins, East Bernard Independent School District’s superintendent wrote in an email to Bullock, according to CNN. “Assuming the children can meet the dress code requirements, as well as all necessary paperwork for enrollment, they are welcome to enroll with our district registrar. Please contact the registrar to make an appointment for enrollment. If you have any specific questions regarding the dress code, please contact the campus principal.”

Brian Klosterboer, attorney for ACLU of Texas, told CNN in a statement, “East Bernard ISD’s hair policy is deeply discriminatory and needs to be changed.”

“The policy contains explicit gender discrimination that recent court decisions have found to be unconstitutional and violate Title IX, and it also explicitly bans ‘braided hair or twisted rows/strands,’ which is a proxy for race discrimination and disproportionately harms Black students in the district,” Klosterboer said.

Texas school

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