The 62-year-old TV personality invites DeAndre Arnold, a senior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, to appear on her award-winning talk show 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show'.
- Jan 30, 2020
AceShowbiz - Ellen DeGeneres is impressed by one black teen named DeAndre Arnold who has the courage to do the right thing for himself. DeAndre went viral after it was revealed that he was asked to cut his dreadlocks in order to walk in his high school graduation.
Ellen invited DeAndre, a senior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, to appear in the Wednesday, January 29 episode of her show "The Ellen DeGeneres Show". "I know this is weird for you because you're in a school in a small town in Texas. And all of a sudden, this is national news and now you're on television. I'm sure this is not easy or comfortable for you," she told DeAndre.
"I want you to just relax and know that I'm here for you. Because I don't understand this," she added. "You get good grades. You've never been in trouble, ever. This is the first time anything has come up. And now you haven't been in school for weeks because of this situation."
"Every day I would go to school, I would always be in dress code," DeAndre explained. "But the thing with them is, if it was let down, I would be out of dress code. And this issue really escalated about after Christmas break."
"Are there girls in your school?" Ellen asked, to which Arnold simply responded, "Oh, yeah. There's plenty of girls with long hair at my school. If girls can have long hair, why can't I have long hair."
"That's my point. That's what I don't understand," Ellen agreed. "I just personally think you should be able to wear your hair however you want."
DeAndre then shared that his dreadlocks were more than just a hairstyle for him. "My hair really means -- like, it's really important to me," he said. "My dad is from Trinidad and you know, it's part of our culture and our heritage. I really wish the school would kind of be open to other cultures. At least let us try to tell you some things. Don't just shut us out."
"He deserves to graduate, to walk with all the other kids," Ellen said to the camera before Alicia Keys appeared while holding a gift, a $20,000 scholarship, for DeAndre. "I'm super proud of you for standing up for what you know is right. I know the school needs to do the right thing. Me and Ellen called our friends at Shutterfly because we know that you're a special person. And we know you're destined for such greatness and we wanted to support that greatness and invest in that greatness," the 39-year-old singer said to the student.
