She had worn the same braids to the same school for two years. Then, one August morning, a new rule said her hair was the problem — and an 11-year-old was sent home crying over the way it was styled.
On August 20, 2018, Faith Fennidy, an 11-year-old sixth-grader at Christ the King school in Terrytown, Louisiana, was sent home over her braided hair extensions. That summer, the school had put a new policy in place permitting only students’ “natural hair” — and suddenly a hairstyle her family said she had worn at the school for two years was treated as a violation.
Faith’s brother Steven did what brothers do in 2018: he filmed it. The video of Faith crying in the school office — a little girl in her uniform, in tears, over her hair — went viral, drawing more than 2 million reported views and landing the story on national television.
A rule that couldn’t survive daylight
The family’s position was simple and devastating: nothing about Faith had changed except the policy. The braids weren’t new. The child wasn’t disruptive. The only new thing in the building was a rule that had decided braided extensions — a protective style worn by generations of Black girls — were somehow unacceptable on a student’s head.
Faith’s family and another family sued. A Louisiana judge blocked enforcement of the rule. And the ending matters, because endings like this don’t always come: the Archdiocese of New Orleans superintendent, RaeNell Houston, told the families and the Associated Press that Christ the King removed — rescinded — the extensions rule.
The rule that sent an 11-year-old home in tears was taken back.
She didn’t go back — and that’s part of the story too
Here is the part the victory headlines sometimes skip: Faith’s family chose not to return her to the school.
That decision deserves respect, not a footnote. Winning the rule change and trusting the building again are two different things. A policy can be rescinded in a press statement; a sixth-grader’s memory of crying in the office while adults debated her braids doesn’t rescind as easily. Her family decided her education would continue somewhere her hair wasn’t a meeting topic. Any parent on this page understands that math instantly.
Meanwhile, the rule change she forced still stands for every girl who came after her at that school — girls who will never know the name of the 11-year-old who paid for their normal morning. That’s how these fights usually work: one child cries on camera, a thousand children never have to.
Why this one lives on a natural hair page
Because braids are not a “distraction,” a “violation,” or a negotiation — they’re heritage, protection, and a mother’s hands on a Sunday night. Faith Fennidy’s story is told here for the same reason all of these are: so the next family in that office knows a judge, a superintendent, and two million witnesses are a possible outcome too.
Join the conversation
Has a school dress code ever come for YOUR child’s braids, extensions, or natural hair? What did you do — fight it, change schools, or both, like Faith’s family? Tell us below. 👇
Source note: Faith Fennidy, 11, a sixth-grader at Christ the King school in Terrytown (Gretna area), Louisiana, was sent home on August 20, 2018 over braided hair extensions under a policy adopted that summer permitting only students’ “natural hair”; her family said she had worn the style at the school for two years. Her brother Steven’s video of her crying in the school office went viral, with 2M+ views reported. These details are from CBS News / WWL-TV reporting via News9 and Good Morning America follow-up coverage via Black Enterprise. The outcome — a Louisiana judge blocking enforcement after her family and another family sued, and Archdiocese of New Orleans superintendent RaeNell Houston confirming to the families and the Associated Press that Christ the King removed/rescinded the extensions rule — is from Associated Press reporting carried by Ebony (August 2018). Faith’s family chose not to return her to the school.
