(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday signed a bill that prevents schools from discriminating against Black students because of their hairstyle.
It’s called the Jett Hawkins Law.
Jett Hawkins is a 4-year-old African American boy whose school told him to take his braids out because they violated the dress code.
He was at the bill signing, in braids. His mother, Ida Nelson, was also there.
“Our hair, our Blackness, our existence deserves to be celebrated. Not just tolerated,” she said.
Beginning Jan. 1, school uniform and dress code policies in Illinois cannot prohibit or restrict hairstyles historically associated with race, ethnicity or hair texture, the governor said of the measure he signed.
“Nobody should be made to feel less-than for how they express themselves,” he said. “We’re making it so our students never have to deal with what Jett and Ida went through again.
The first pen the governor used to sign he gave to little Jett.
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