It turned obvious to anybody watching Tuesday that Deanna and Mya Cook are to not be trifled with.
The college-aged twins joined Gov. Charlie Baker in his workplace to witness his signing of the CROWN Act, or “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair” act, which comes about by way of their effort.
The pair made headlines in 2017 when Mystic Valley Regional Charter School made a rule banning hair extensions for college kids.
Both ladies have been disciplined for his or her fashion of hair.
“When Mya and I were sophomores in high school we were punished by Mystic Valley Regional Charter School for putting our hair in braids,” Deanna Cook mentioned.
The ladies, who at the moment are seniors in faculty within the UMass system, have been faraway from their respective sports activities groups, and have been instructed they couldn’t attend the promenade.
Meanwhile, white college students whose hair was coloured weren’t reprimanded for additionally breaking the costume code.
Attorney General Maura Healey in the end intervened, sending a letter to the varsity’s director arguing that “MVRCS’s Hair/MakeUp policy violates state and federal law, on its face and/or as applied, by subjecting students of color, especially black students, to differential treatment and thus denying them the same advantages and privileges of public education afforded to other students.”
The college students, for his or her half, weren’t joyful to easily sit again and let the established order stand and started lobbying to have the legislation modified to forestall additional discrimination.
“I want to be natural, be myself, but it’s hard when people are discriminating against that,” Mya Cook mentioned.
“Now here we are today. It has been a long fight, but we are now able to say Massachusetts will officially be putting the CROWN act into law,” he sister mentioned.
The legislation will stop workplaces and colleges from discriminating in opposition to an individual based mostly off of their pure hair. It doesn’t particularly state what the penalty is for a violation of the legislation.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”