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Kalle Benallie
ICT

A Rosebud Lakota couple has settled a two-year federal civil rights lawsuit regarding a school employee in the Cody-Kilgore Unified Schools District in north-central Nebraska who allegedly cut the hair of their two daughters without parental permission and against their religious beliefs.

The district and the couple agreed to a consent decree that will last for five years. The terms include: prohibiting school employees from cutting students’ hair without written consent from parents or guardians, requiring the district to provide cultural competency training for staff, and recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Native American Heritage Month.

Alice Johnson said while she and Norma LeRoy were aware that there was state-regulated competency training, they wanted a little more protection for the children.

“It just ensures that this won’t happen again to anybody. The consent decree was a huge part of what we’re looking to accomplish. The policy change and the implements that they have to make now just ensures that no other Native American student within that school district will have to endure what my children had to and continue to live with,” Johnson said.

The order also includes monetary damages for the family. Johnson said taking the lawsuit to court would have guaranteed financial gain but would not have guaranteed a consent decree.

“All we really wanted was an apology and we requested it. Money was never the aspect of any of this,” she said. “I think a lot of people aren’t understanding of us. Not going to court helped us get the consent decree that was needed.”

American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska Legal Director Rose Godinez made this statement on the settlement: “This consent decree will ensure the school district provides a learning environment where students of different religious and cultural backgrounds are seen, and their differences are not only respected but acknowledged and honored.”

All parties also agreed that “affording equal protection of students’ religious beliefs is essential" to compliance with the U.S. Constitution and federal law, and that “this can best be achieved by a cooperative effort.”

In the lawsuit and in an interview with ICT, Johnson recounted the events leading to the lawsuit. She said her 10-year-old daughter, at the time, and niece came home from school in March 2020 and were talking amongst each other. Johnson was paying attention to their conversation and heard about how one of the girl’s hair was cut two times for head lice at school.

Later, LeRoy allegedly found bald patches in her 6-year-old daughter's hair, who was nonverbal at the time and didn’t tell them anything had happened.

“For many Native Americans across various tribes, including the Lakota, hair is regarded as an extension of their physical being and can symbolize mourning,” the lawsuit states. “(The two girls) have been taught traditional Lakota beliefs and practices by Alice and Norma since they were very young. These teachings have included the belief that their hair should be kept long as a sacred symbol of their own life and cut only under specific circumstances such as after the death of a loved one.”

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Johnson said the older daughter, who is 13 now, is happy, especially about the couple testifying before the Nebraska Legislature in support of Legislative Bill 298, which was passed in May. One of its sections addresses the protection of a student's tribal regalia and protective hairstyles and requires school districts to adopt a grooming policy.

“I could tell she feel a safety around her with that,” Johnson said.

Johnson connects how the alleged incident is similar to the boarding school era; Native people’s way of being stripped away and how traumatizing it was and continues to be.

“We actually feel like we needed to put a stop to it and build a better future for all Native American kids and kids out there — not just Native Americans. Anyone out there who is going through this,” LeRoy said.

Johnson credits the ACLU Nebraska and the Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic, which notified them consistently throughout the lawsuit.

“We’ve been the voice through it all, but ACLU and Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic was the footwork,” she said.

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“This settlement is an important win for religious liberty. We are grateful to our clients for their courage and perseverance in bringing this lawsuit, not only to vindicate their most fundamental sacred Lakota beliefs but to secure meaningful policy changes that will ensure religious and civil rights protections for all families,” said Josh McDaniel, Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic director, about the settlement.

Johnson hopes that schools will be adjusted to the protocols within the five-year requirement and it will be something that will continue in Nebraska and perhaps the rest of the country.

“We got justice but we’re going to be fighting for everybody,” LeRoy said. “If this goes to raising awareness in each state, I will.

“Our main goal is to make LB 298 a bill in every state. Our journey has just begun,” Johnson said.

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