Janet Bello, 23, says when she applied for a part-time job at Six Flags in Largo, she was told her “locks” hairstyle disqualified her from employment.
She says a supervisor told her management is adhering strictly this year to a years-old corporate grooming policy that considers dreadlocks to be an extreme hairstyle. Bello considers the characterization to be offensive:
“I think it’s outrageous, and I really think it’s sad. … I think Six Flags can literally, excuse my French, go to hell.”
A copy of Six Flags’ grooming standards for employees, obtained by ABC 7 News, states that the company does not permit “any hairstyle that detracts or takes away from Six Flags’ theme.”
It’s not made clear exactly what “theme” they’re trying not to detract from.
Sixty-year-old Jackie Sherrill says she worked at Six Flags last summer and received a letter earlier this year asking her to come back. She says when a supervisor saw that the returning employee had dreads, the same ones she had when she was first employed there, she was told she would not be welcome back unless she changed her appearance.
The apparently subjective enforcement of the policy paves the way for a good lawsuit.
A spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union, who’s had complaints about the park’s policy before, believes that defining locked hair as inherently unprofessional is racially insensitive at best — and discriminatory at worst.
Six Flags issued this statement to ABC News:
“Six Flags enforces a conservative grooming policy across all parks. The policy does not permit certain hairstyles such as variations in hair colors, dreadlocks, partially shaved heads, tails, and hairstyles that impair vision. Braided hair is allowed but must be in neat, even rows and without beads or other ornaments.”
Fair or unfair? –gerald radford
