Nicole Pyles, a teenager at Hillside High School in Durham, North Carolina, was told by umpires in a softball game to either remove beads from her hair or that she wouldn't be able to participate.
Pyles, who is Black, was wearing hair beads and decided to let her teammates cut her hair rather than not play in the team's senior night. According to The News & Observer newspaper, the incident has stirred up significant backlash and prompted Durham Public Schools to launch an investigation into a "culturally biased" high school athletics rule in the state. The Southern Coalition for Social Justice blasted the rule, labeling it a "hair discrimination incident" and requesting state officials "eradicate all forms of anti-Black biases in schools.”
The two umpires of the game were enforcing rules outlined by the National Federation of State High School Associations (in North Carolina) prohibiting plastic visors, bandannas and hair beads. Bobby pins, barrettes and hair clips are, however, allowed. Per The Observer, the home plate umpire was Black while the base umpire was white.
“It was humiliating,” Nicole Pyles told The News & Observer Wednesday. “Why do I have to take away from myself just to play this game where we are actually doing well? I’m embarrassed because you pick on me in front of all these people for no reason.”
Gloves sit on the dugout wall during a softball game. (Photo: Lachlan Cunningham, AP)
A Facebook live video of the game showed teammates asking "does anyone have scissors?" after the dispute with the umpires in Hillside's April 19 game against Jordan High. The white home base umpire was influenced by the Jordan coaching staff, but Pyles said she had played in several games with the beads — with no enforcement of the rule.
“I was upset,” Pyles said. “He had seen me play multiple times. If it was a rule that’s that important why wasn’t it enforced the first time you spoke to me or you saw me come on the field or off the field or any of that?”
The statement from Durham Public Schools supporting Pyles read: “DPS supports our student-athletes and their right to self-expression in a manner befitting their culture, consistent with safety in training and competition. We believe the blanket ban on hair beads is culturally biased and problematic. We support our student, Nicole Pyles, and believe this rule should be amended. We frown on any rule or policy that promotes cultural insensitivity or does not reflect the ideals and principles of DPS and our employees.”
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