The Cody-Kilgore school district has reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit brought over an incident in which the district cut the hair of two Native American students without parental permission during an examination for head lice.
The consent decree calls for Cody-Kilgore to pay $227,500 to the families, hold cultural sensitivity training for staff, and ban cutting the hair of any student without their parents approval.
. ACLU of Nebraska had sued the school district on behalf of two Lakota grade school students whose hair was cut during a head lice exam in 2020.
The suit said the district violated the students’ traditional and religious rights. Lakota culture values long hair and believes that it can be cut only by certain people under certain circumstances.
The suit also said cutting hair was not part of the Cody-Kilgore district’s head lice protocol and continued after the students’ parents had objected
Alice Johnson, the mother of the students, says Lakota culture believes “our hair is our essence” and although her children had that taken away, she’s “at peace knowing that school officials will never cut the hair of a child ever again.”
As part of the consent decreet, which extends for five years, the school district will “provide a diverse recognition” of Native American Heritage Month every November, Indigenous Peoples’ Day in October, and Native American Heritage Day in November.
Cody-Kilgore Superintendent Ryan Orrock says the district had been preparing its defense to the lawsuit when the school board decided the settlement, with its insurance carrier covering the financial side, was a better course of action.
Orrock said in a written statement that “Litigation is costly and time consuming (while) this resolution allows the school to end the litigation in the way that best serves our current students, staff, and community.”
The $227,500 will be divided equally between the two parents and the two children, although the children won’t be able to access their payments until they’re 19.
ACLU legal director Rose Godinez says the settlement “represents a significant step toward upholding the fundamental freedoms and cultural heritage of Indigenous communities across Nebraska.”
The settlement follows the passage of a law this spring by the Nebraska Legislature to protect the rights of students to wear natural hair and to wear tribal regalia