#TripleUpExclusive: Highschool Softball player forced to cut braids mid-game.

May 5th

Blog.

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Nicole Pyles, A student at Hillside High School in Durham, North Carolina was playng softball on April 19th, it was the last game of the season and her team was in the lead when an umpire tod her that due to her hair style, he was unable to see her uniform number. Wearing Beaded Braids, A hair style she has wore to play in previous games, she tucked her hair in and continued to play, but after another complaint the umpire told her her braids violated the rules. After being told she had to remove her hair or stop playing, Pyles was forced to cut her hair. “My team, all of my friends were cutting out some of my beads. They snatched some of the beads out of my hair.” “I felt just so embarrassed and disrespected and just distraught at that point.” - Pyles.

In a statement made by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, they were following a regulation from the National Federation of State High School Associations, which provides the nation wide uniform rules like softball rule 3-2-5 ‘Plastic visors, bandanas and hair-beads are prohibited,'. Durham Public School District admits that this rule is culturally biased.