BALTIMORE, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A Jesuit school in Baltimore has dropped a policy banning dreadlocks rather than deny admission to a straight-A student, a school administrator said.
Danielle Cook, 13, applied to Cristo Rey Jesuit High School and though she's made straight As since preschool she was informed she would not be permitted to attend unless she combed out the dreadlocks she's had for several years, The Baltimore Sun reported.
"I was hurt," Danielle said. "I like my hair. It's me. It's nobody else."
After the newspaper inquired on Cook's behalf about the policy, an administrator told The Sun the school, which primarily serves black children, would drop the policy from its handbook.
The incident is the third that's made headlines in recent weeks for schools cracking down on a black girl's hairstyle. A Christian school in Florida and a charter school in Oklahoma both backed off enforcing policies.
In Florida, a young girl was threatened with expulsion for letting her hair grow out naturally and not straightening it. In Oklahoma, dreadlocks were the issue when a girl was sent home because hers were not deemed "presentable."
In all three instances, the schools relented after their decision was made public.
