Umps tell Black NC softball player to cut her hair during a game. ‘It was humiliating’

On April 19, Nicole Pyles faced a choice of removing her hair beads or abandoning her Hillside High School softball teammates in the middle of their game against Durham rival Jordan High.

The demand came from the game’s two umpires, who were following a strict interpretation of a National Federation of State High School Associations rule that allows players to use bobby pins, barrettes and hair clips but prohibits plastic visors, bandannas and hair beads.

In a Facebook live video of the game, a plea can be heard from the Hillside dugout: “Does anyone have scissors?”

Pyles, who is Black, opted to let her teammates cut her hair to remove the beads so she could continue playing in her team’s senior night game. But she wasn’t happy about it and still isn’t.

“It was humiliating,” Nicole Pyles said in a Zoom interview with The News & Observer on 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.”

The home plate umpire in the game was Black, the base umpire was white.

Durham Public Schools launches an investigation

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) official softball rulebook stipulates beads aren’t allowed to be worn.

While acknowledging that, Durham Public Schools launched an investigation into the incident anyway, saying in a statement Wednesday “DPS believes this rule is culturally biased.”

Later Wednesday, DPS released another statement fully supporting Pyles and saying the rule should be changed.

“DPS supports our student-athletes and their right to self-expression in a manner befitting their culture, consistent with safety in training and competition,” the statement said. “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.”

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice has also taken issue with the rule, saying this is a “hair discrimination incident” while calling on Durham and state officials to “pass policies that eradicate all forms of anti-Black biases in schools.”

In January, Durham passed a non-discrimination policy covering hairstyles. Since then, Orange and Mecklenburg counties, as well as Carrboro and Greensboro, enacted similar policies. Bills to make those policies statewide laws were filed in both houses of the General Assembly this year but neither was passed.

The statement from Durham Public Schools said a joint investigation, along with the N.C. High Schools Athletics Association, determined the umpires made the decision to ask Pyles to remove the beads on their own, without any input from the Jordan High coaching staff.

The investigation comes far later than Julius Pyles, Nicole’s father, wanted.

“I think it should have happened when the incident took place, it shouldn’t have taken this long,” Julius Pyles told The News & Observer in a Zoom interview Wednesday. “This is an incident that should have been addressed immediately.”

‘I feel humiliated’

The umpires approached Nicole Pyles after Jordan completed its at-bat in the top of the second inning of the game at Hillside.

A Facebook live video of the game shows Jordan’s first-base coach, who is white, walk to the mound to speak to the base umpire, who is also white.

That umpire then walked toward the Hillside dugout, which is partially out of the stationary camera’s view. The home plate umpire, who is Black, had previously walked toward the dugout once play stopped.

Due to bat first for Hillside when play resumed, Pyles was taking warm-up swings in the on-deck circle. Though the view of Pyles’ conversation with the umpires is not fully visible on the video, Pyles told the N&O Wednesday the home plate umpire spoke to her with the base umpire standing behind her.

That’s when she said knew she had to cut her hair to keep playing. A few seconds later, a female voice is heard yelling on the video, “Does anyone have scissors?”

“At this point, I feel humiliated, embarrassed because everybody was just trying to figure out what to do,” Pyles said. “I know these beads have to come out. There’s nothing I can do to stop this.”

While the game went on, with Jordan ultimately winning 23-12, Pyles felt her treatment by the umpires, particularly the white base umpire, was unfair.

“I was upset,” she 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?”

DPS policies do not prohibit beads in hair

Julius Pyles said he was not at the game but he contacted DPS the following day about the incident. He received a phone call from Hillside athletic director Ovester Grays, Jr., who told him who to contact at the NCHSAA.

Julius Pyles then wrote a letter to Mark Dreibelbis, the NCHSAA’s supervisor of officials.

“In turn, whatever investigation he did he did not respond back to me but via email to contact the athletic director at Hillside,” Julius Pyles said. “My thing was I sent the letter to you. You should have addressed me. I shouldn’t have to go ask someone else. That makes me feel like he didn’t really care much for what I had to say.”

DPS policies do not prohibit beads in hair. In March, the school district celebrated CROWN Act week, with CROWN an acronym for Creating a Respectful & Open World with NO RACISM.

Nicole Pyles said changing the softball rule would be a good start.

“I want to see the rule changed, specifically the beads rule,” she said, adding the incident, “embarrassed me, hurt me, hurt my family, embarrassed my teammates on their senior night in front of their families, their friends, previous Hillside students who played at Hillside years ago and graduated college.”

“I don’t feel like their first time coming back to watch a softball game they need to see me being discriminated against at a softball game, having to cut my hair just to play,” Nicole Pyles told the N&O.

The statement from DPS Wednesday said the district will “be diligently working to encourage the NCHSAA and NFHS to review their policies that on the surface seem fair but are culturally biased and inappropriate. The aim is to make sure that all our athletes regardless of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation have the opportunity to compete without rules that target them based on any of these factors.”