Ida Nelson says she expected more from her son’s predominantly Black school.
One Chicago mom is fighting back after her 4-year-old son’s school told her that his braids were a dress code violation.
When Ida Nelson’s preschooler, Gus Hawkins IV, affectionately known as Jett, asked her to put his hair in braids earlier this month, she happily obliged.
Jett attends Providence St. Mel School, an independent school in the West Side neighborhood of Chicago that has a predominantly Black student body, the mom of four told TODAY. It has a “good reputation,” she said, with all of its graduating seniors being accepted into a four-year university or college since 1978.
“(Jett) was so excited, he wanted to go to school and show the teacher because that’s what 4-year-olds want to do — show his friends and his teachers his cool hair,” Nelson recalled.Jett Hawkins, 4, wearing braids in his hair.Ida Nelson
Nelson also attended Providence St. Mel. She said that she was aware of the school’s hair policies from her time as a student there, but didn’t realize they existed and were enforced some 20 years later.
“I said, ‘We still have policies related to Black hair in 2021, as an all Black school? I’m really shocked about that,'” she told TODAY of the conversation with the school. “We have progressed, we have so much more information. … I thought surely this school would understand the trauma associated with policing Black hair and absolutely not have a policy like that.”
To Jett’s dismay, she said, she decided to remove the braids and put his hair in a ponytail, which she said prompted another call because it was also a dress code violation. Nelson added that Jett previously wore the braids while in virtual classes, but no one said anything.
Today
