one North Jersey school district is filing a biased complaint against the state after referees disqualified a student athlete from playing in a girls basketball game because of her hair beads the South Orange Maplewood School District alleges the decision was a form of racial discrimination and in violation of New Jersey Crown act which was put in place to prevent incidents like this against people of color from happening Melissa Rose Cooper has the story above everything else our student should be able to be their be their best sales I mean they shouldn't have to change themselves in order to meet whatever standard uh people believe they should meet in terms of what their hair should look like so Kevin Gilbert Acting Superintendent of the South Orange Maplewood School District was in disbelief after learning a student was disqualified from a basketball game last week for wearing beads in her hair the coach uh protested a little said you know this doesn't this isn't right uh but he went on and told the young lady that she could not play based on what the referees has said and so he also went and talked to our athletic director uh Mr Rich uh profito and Rich immediately went and got the rulebook the that a student athlete was disqualified for the entire first quarter uh at the end of the first quarter our athletic director pulled the referee to the side and showed them what the rule was that the young lady could play all she had to do was Secure those beads in place that's when Gilbert says the student was allowed to get back in the game but at that point the damage had already been done the word she gave me was wow she said you know this above everything else that's going on it was totally you know this is just you know another one of those things that you know she could not believe uh she has to she had to go through the school district has since filed a biased complaint with the New Jersey state inter Scholastic Athletic Association for violating the the crown act the legislation was passed in the garden States in 2019 a year after then 16-year-old Andrew Johnson was told he needed to cut his locks or face disqualification from his wrestling match I've had few daughters and I've had to take beats out of my daughter's own hair to play soccer several years ago and so I know the embarrassment the anger that I had having to do that even with the fact we had covering for her back then James Davis heads the South Orange chapter of the social justice group black parents Workshop he agrees hair discrimination is wrong but believes this incident may have been due to a lack of proper communication in sports There Are Rules around safety and one of the rules regards things like Jewelry earrings nose rings uh and beads in your hair and so players are required to cover them before playing and for whatever reason uh the team's coaches the referees did not notice the student had beads during warm up that's the reason why the rule is you have to secure them right because they could come out and they could create some issues but you don't disqualify the athlete according to the njsa the rules were updated in 2022 allowing athletes to wear hair adornments like beads as long as they are securely fast To The Head And do not present an increased risk to the player teammates or opponents in response to last week's incident a spokesperson confirming in a statement njsia aa's legal council alerted New Jersey's division on civil rights in addition njsiaa has contacted everyone involved and is awaiting responses members of the South Orange Maplewood School District say they look forward to the result of the investigation they hope this incident will teach others the importance of the crown act so something like this doesn't happen again for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper Melissa Rose Cooper