Patricia Okonta (’18), assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was quoted in K-12 Dive about various states’ adoption of the CROWN Act, a law that prohibits discrimination based on hair style and texture (“Here’s What Schools Should Know About the Growing CROWN Act,” June 30). “Schools and school officials should be aware that these protections exist and that students can use the CROWN Act … to protect their rights as Black students or students of color within a particular school district,” Patricia said. “We are exposing this sort of discrimination that has existed for a long time and has denied Black people’s mobility and infringed on their right to exist as their full selves.”
