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HAIRSTYLE ROW
Mom threatens legal action against school
Stacy Moore
THE hairstyle of a 15-year-old schoolgirl may become the subject of court action as a mother of two is now contemplating a discrimination lawsuit against the principal and the school her daughter attends in Princes Town.
The woman, Leiselle Morton-Taylor, is claiming that for almost two years her daughter has been picked on because of certain natural hairstyles. However, school officials are claiming that the form five student has breached the school’s code of conduct by wearing particular hairstyles.
Morton-Taylor is saying that her daughter’s hair is always combed neatly. However, no matter how her daughter’s hair is styled, she is still being targeted and told, "Why can’t she comb her hair?"
The mother said such hairstyles include Bantu knots, twists and sleek puffs. “These are the hairstyles I send my daughter to school with. They are always neat and appropriate for a school child.”
The frustrated mother said she has visited the school on numerous occasions after her daughter complains about what she is being told about her hair by school staff. The upset mother said last week Thursday was the final straw when the principal placed her hand in her daughter’s hair and said, “So your mother couldn't comb your hair better than that?”
One of the hairtsyles worn by the student to school.
She took to social media to air her frustrations in a post along with photographs of her daughter’s hairstyles.
“They are saying my daughter did not abide by the dress code restrictions, but that is not true. There is nothing in the code that speaks about a child wearing Bantu knots, twists, cornrows or sleek puffs. There is nothing; so I need answers about why my child is being and continues to be treated this way because of her hairstyle.”
Morton-Taylor said after the principal placed her hands in her daughter’s hair last week, her daughter came home crying. “She told me, ‘Mummy I think I should press my hair up until I write exams and that way my hair would not be a problem.’ I could see the frustration in her eyes, it has been almost two years. She has grown weary. She is fed up.”
The woman said she told her daughter that she should always stand up for what is right and stay true to her identity. “Why should she make her hair straight to fit in and give in to social pressure? No, I will continue to fight for my daughter and probably all the little girls who feel they must wear their hair a certain way to fit in.”
Morton-Taylor said her daughter is an exemplary student. “She performs well academically, she represents the school in sport. She has even been described as a role model by one of her teachers. But apparently her problem is her hair. The hair she was born with.
“In 2019 children are being discriminated because of their hair. My daughter is not the only girl in the school being targeted, there are other students.”
She said when she posted the situation on Facebook, she realised there is also another school where young children are being targeted because of how they style their hair.
Morton-Taylor said last month she was also shocked to hear a dean at the school tell students during assembly that certain hairstyles they wear will only attract "badman."
“These hairstyles she was referring to were the same hairstyles I comb my daughter's hair.”
The dress code restrictions state that students “do not have the right” to wear gel hairstyles or elevated hairstyles, dyed or sculpted hair, and long or dangling hairpieces or extensions. The code also states that hair accessories in colours other than the green colour approved by the school, are forbidden.
An official of the education ministry told Newsday that the ministry was aware of the matter which is now being investigated by the education district.
The official said the ministry had guidelines in the school code of conduct that relates to the dress code of students.
The code, which is found on the ministry’s website, advises that “students should wear school uniforms and their grooming should be modest, clean and consistent with healthy, sanitary and safety practices.”
It also says, “Students presenting a bodily appearance or wearing clothing which is disruptive, provocative, revealing, profane, vulgar, offensive, obscene or which endangers the health or safety of the students or others is prohibited. Failure to wear the prescribed school uniform and to be appropriately groomed as set out by the individual school rules is a violation of the National School Code of Conduct and will warrant the appropriate consequence.”
maj. tom wrote:Ah yes the legacy of the old British colonial system of proper school dress. After they stripped away African culture during slavery (so females lost their cultural knowledge of dress and hairstyles) they forced people to dress like their "superior" white civilization in schools and government offices. And brutally suppressed any other expression of culture at the young school ages by "discipline."
And this is part of their legacy, passed on to ignorant people who now have authority over children, but have never read a history book. I don't see anything wrong with the child's hair. I calling it a power trip based on ignorance and some sort of inferiority complex going on with the principal.
abducted wrote:Supposing it is not a race issue at all in the school, but the mother is making it out to be about race? The hairstyle is neat, but some teachers or principals are stricter than others and become even more unreasonable when opposed.
Hair discrimination is intertwined with racism. Let's follow California, and ban it.
Braiding up your child’s hair and dotting the ends with beads might be an “extreme” style in the eyes of some schools, but we can’t ignore the fact that society’s idea of what is “extreme” is rooted in a white norm. Black hairstyles have extensive cultural histories: canerows, for example, aren’t a new “trend” – black women have been rocking them from as early as 3000 BC.
Of course, hair discrimination is not always as obvious as being sent home from school or being told you’re not allowed to work. Some racist hair discrimination is subtle, manifesting in the form of microaggressions, or pressure to conform to ideas of what is “neat” and “professional” (read: European). We know that systemic discrimination can fly under the radar – racism in hiring processes is technically illegal in the UK, and yet research consistently demonstrates that white applicants have a better shot at a callback. As many black people know, the law does not offer blanket protection from racism. What it does offer, however, is something to point towards – a crutch that would have been useful for my mum in the quarrels with teachers.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... fornia-ban
New research confirms what I’ve seen as a teacher – many children with afro-textured hair face prejudice in UK schools.
Having recently taught in a school with a large African-Caribbean student population, this research confirms what I witnessed there. I saw boys with cornrows and afros being told by senior school leaders that they won’t be taken seriously if they didn’t adopt a more “professional” hairstyle. I consoled young black girls placed in internal exclusion rooms for wearing a black protective cloth over their recently styled braids. Black students being sent home for adding blond or red streaks to their hair, while white students who did the same went unreprimanded, shows how racialised school uniform policies can be.
Yet the policing of black students’ appearance is just one symptom of the devastating injustices that black students experience in our school system today. Black pupils are more than two times as likely to be placed in a lower maths set as a result of unconscious bias against their perceived abilities. An African-Caribbean male student with special needs who receives free school meals is 168 times more likely to be permanently excluded than a white female counterpart. And despite research showing that having just one black teacher in school means a black student is 13% more likely to go to university, black teachers are still massively under-represented at all levels of our school system.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... uk-schools
maj. tom wrote:Why school authorities don't tell little girls that their skin too black and make them use skin-bleaching creams to be like our past colonial white massa women?
maj.tom wrote:yes, rather a big kick up and be free than remain a stupid little mouse that gets pushed around for all life
As long as her grades are acceptable she could do watever she want, could look like ah immortelle tree, should have that right.maj. tom wrote:Hair discrimination is intertwined with racism. Let's follow California, and ban it.
Braiding up your child’s hair and dotting the ends with beads might be an “extreme” style in the eyes of some schools, but we can’t ignore the fact that society’s idea of what is “extreme” is rooted in a white norm. Black hairstyles have extensive cultural histories: canerows, for example, aren’t a new “trend” – black women have been rocking them from as early as 3000 BC.
Of course, hair discrimination is not always as obvious as being sent home from school or being told you’re not allowed to work. Some racist hair discrimination is subtle, manifesting in the form of microaggressions, or pressure to conform to ideas of what is “neat” and “professional” (read: European). We know that systemic discrimination can fly under the radar – racism in hiring processes is technically illegal in the UK, and yet research consistently demonstrates that white applicants have a better shot at a callback. As many black people know, the law does not offer blanket protection from racism. What it does offer, however, is something to point towards – a crutch that would have been useful for my mum in the quarrels with teachers.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... fornia-banNew research confirms what I’ve seen as a teacher – many children with afro-textured hair face prejudice in UK schools.
Having recently taught in a school with a large African-Caribbean student population, this research confirms what I witnessed there. I saw boys with cornrows and afros being told by senior school leaders that they won’t be taken seriously if they didn’t adopt a more “professional” hairstyle. I consoled young black girls placed in internal exclusion rooms for wearing a black protective cloth over their recently styled braids. Black students being sent home for adding blond or red streaks to their hair, while white students who did the same went unreprimanded, shows how racialised school uniform policies can be.
Yet the policing of black students’ appearance is just one symptom of the devastating injustices that black students experience in our school system today. Black pupils are more than two times as likely to be placed in a lower maths set as a result of unconscious bias against their perceived abilities. An African-Caribbean male student with special needs who receives free school meals is 168 times more likely to be permanently excluded than a white female counterpart. And despite research showing that having just one black teacher in school means a black student is 13% more likely to go to university, black teachers are still massively under-represented at all levels of our school system.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... uk-schools
I realllllll trying to get some of allyuh to think outside the mind-conditioning box you've been placed in but it's just not working. These are the same people who always here talking about how "it was better in my day when they used to beat chirren in school" or "i wish the British were still ruling Trinidad," and could never, NEVER attempt to observe the true root causes of the problems we face in society.
That did change by force, cause it hardly had anyone remaining. But I feel it rever back, massa time now.De Dragon wrote:I have worked places where I was explicitly told that long hair/earrings/tattoos = no upward movement. Thankfully where I am presently is not so narrow minded and discriminatory.
sMASH wrote:That did change by force, cause it hardly had anyone remaining. But I feel it rever back, massa time now.De Dragon wrote:I have worked places where I was explicitly told that long hair/earrings/tattoos = no upward movement. Thankfully where I am presently is not so narrow minded and discriminatory.
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