[Dreadlocks\Ohio’s Zion Temple Christian Academy]
Christina Johnson: “What’s disheartening about Zion Temple is it’s in the middle of a Black community, and it’s a predominantly Black school. How can you not accept your own people?”
Photo: Twitter
Ohio’s Zion Temple Christian Academy is practicing racial discrimination, by telling the parents of 6-year-old Asten Johnson that he can’t attend their school wearing his natural dreadlocks hair–as was done, in Florida, to Clinton Stanley Jr. (above) in 2018.
A few days ago, young Asten Johnson learned his school didn’t want him back, at least not the way he is now.
The 6-year-old has dreadlocks. When his hair is wet and he pulls on it, it comes down to about his eyes.
His parents, Christina and Nate Johnson, wear the same natural style, though their hair is much longer, extending in black and brown coils down their backs.
“(Asten) looks in the mirror every single day and tells me how long his hair has grown,” Christina Johnson said. He wants his hair to grow fast. He wants to look like his parents.
Officials at his school want the opposite. Zion Temple Christian Academy in Avondale told the Johnsons that locks, a natural hairstyle for Black people, are not allowed at the school, Christina Johnson said, even though Asten was enrolled and wore the style last year.
The family planned to enroll Asten’s younger brother, 3-year-old Arrison, in the school this year. But “Arri” also has locks.
Their parents had to decide: comply with the school’s order or look elsewhere. They chose the latter.
“What’s disheartening about Zion Temple is it’s in the middle of a Black community, and it’s a predominantly Black school,” Christina Johnson said. “How can you not accept your own people?”
Read the rest of this story here: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/08/17/cincinnati-private-school-discriminates-against-black-hair-styles-family-says/5585701002/
