VICTORY: Deborah Brown Community School apologizes to Tiana Parker and changes dress code

Tiana Parker, a 7-year-old straight-A student, was sent home in tears from her Tulsa, Oklahoma charter school after being told that, according to news reports, her short and tidy dreadlocks didn’t look presentable.

Over 20,000 CREDO activists signed Wagatwe’s petition and sent the school a powerful message: Telling a 7-year-old girl that her natural hair is “not presentable” is discriminatory and unacceptable. Her petition struck a major nerve and generated local, national and international media attention in outlets like the Tulsa World, MSNBC, Huffington Post and United Press International. The independent governing board for Deborah Brown Community School unanimously voted to remove language prohibiting dreadlocks, afros, and other “faddish styles” of hair from its dress code.