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AG Says Malden School's Hair Extension Policy Is Discriminatory

BOSTON (CBS) – The Massachusetts Attorney General says a Malden school's policy over hair extensions is discriminatory.

Maura Healey's office sent a letter to the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School Friday, warning the school it needs to immediately stop enforcing its hair and makeup policy.

Last week, two sisters, Deanna and Mya, told WBZ-TV they were punished and kept from school events because they had hair extensions.

READ: Attorney General's Letter To MVRCS

School administrators say the braids are a violation of their dress code. The girl's parents claim that policy is discriminatory which sparked an investigation by the attorney general.

Although she's had over 15 hours of detention at the school, Mya Cook has been able to keep a positive attitude,

"You know, no rain, no flowers, so when there's bad things that happen, of course good things are going to happen too," Cook said.

In a letter to the school, the AG's office says its hair/makeup policy "includes a number of prohibitions that are either unreasonably subjective or appear to effectively single out students of color."

The letter goes on to say, "there appears to be substantial evidence that the Hair/Makeup policy is—at best—inconsistently applied."

The AG asked that the twins are immediately allowed back into all school events.

The twin girl's father Aaron Cook says he's grateful for the letter.

"We really appreciated the position of that the AG and the author laid out," Aaron Cook said.

Alexander J. Dan, the Interim School Director at the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School said, "We are in receipt of the letter from the attorney general's office and it will be reviewed by the board of trustees at a meeting that has been called for Sunday night."

The investigation into the policy's legality is ongoing.

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