LINCOLN — A Sandhills-area school district will pay $227,500 and hold cultural sensitivity training for its staff as part of a settlement over an incident in which two Lakota students hair was cut without permission.

Another aspect of the federal lawsuit consent decree on Wednesday bans the Cody-Kilgore School District from cutting any student’s hair without parental permission or during a head lice check.

ACLU of Nebraska sued the school district on behalf of two elementary school students whose hair was cut during a head lice exam in 2020.

The civil rights organization said that the hair cuts violated the students’ traditional and religious rights, and were not part of the district’s head lice protocol and continued after their parents had objected.

Lakota culture values long hair and believes that it can be cut only by certain people under certain circumstances. The Cody-Kilgore district is west of Valentine, and sits just south of the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

“In our culture, we believe our hair is our essence,” said Alice Johnson, the students’ mother.

“Although that part of my children has been taken from them, I am at peace knowing that school officials will never cut the hair of a child ever again,” she added.

As part of the consent decree in U.S. District Court, which extends for five years, the school district will “provide a diverse recognition” of Native American Heritage Month every November, Indigenous Peoples’ Day in October, and Native American Heritage Day in November.

Cody-Kilgore Superintendent Ryan Orrock said Thursday that the district had been preparing its defense to the lawsuit, but instead agreed to amend its policies and training for students and staff. The district’s insurance carrier covered the financial settlement, he said.

“Litigation is costly and time consuming,” Orrock said in a prepared statement.  “This resolution allows the school to end the litigation in the way that best serves our current students, staff, and community.”

The $227,500 monetary award will be divided equally between the two parents and the two children, with the children’s payments unaccessible until they reach age 19.

In a press release, ACLU legal director Rose Godinez said the settlement “represents a significant step toward upholding the fundamental freedoms and cultural heritage of Indigenous communities across Nebraska.”

The Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic helped represent the children.

The settlement follows the passage of a law this spring by the Nebraska Legislature to protect the rights of students to wear natural hair and to wear tribal regalia.

This story was originally published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. It is part of the national nonprofit States Newsroom. Find more at nebraskaexaminer.com.