NO MORE SPLITTING HAIRS

Days before the start of the new academic year, stakeholders are hopeful that the draft national grooming policy, which is set to take effect in schools, will result in fewer students being barred from school because of infractions.

“We don’t have time for parents to be blocking a gate and carrying on and taking on the school administration because of a particular way in which you choose to dress your child or send your child out to school. There’s a commonality, as far as grooming is concerned,” National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ) Vice-President Stewart Jacobs said in a Gleaner interview.

Education Minister Fayval Williams said that the policy, which has been in draft for a number of years, will be available in time for September 4 and will serve as the benchmark on which school administrations ought to formulate grooming rules.

Among its goals is to reduce discriminatory practices, especially those regarding the contentious area of students’ hairstyles and other grooming rules, while, at the same time, addressing the need for discipline and adherence to societal values at the school level.

Already the draft policy has removed the requirement for male Rastafarian students to cover their dreadlocks. This is a move that the principal of Old Harbour High School, Lynton Weir, has welcomed.

RULE SCRAPPED

He told The Gleaner that the St Catherine-based institution scrapped this rule three years ago after consultations with Rastafarian students at the school.

“I asked the students, … I said, ‘Talk to me one on one. What is it that you would want me to change or adjust as it relates to being the principal of this institution?’,” Weir recalled.

“One young man, who was a Rastafarian, said, ‘Sir, there’s only one adjustment that I would like you to make.’

“He said, ‘Sir, I am a Rastafarian. I would love to be able to come to school not wearing my tam’,” the headmaster said, adding that the only stipulation was that Rastafarian students who choose not to cover their hair would take the necessary action to fasten it.

“I think it is important for young people to be able to celebrate themselves. When you look, for example, at young ladies who loc their hair, their hair is not covered, they are able to express themselves. So I think it is very, very important as principal leaders that we identify with the policy and celebrate it with our young people,” he said.

‘TIMELY’ POLICY

Stating that the policy is “quite timely”, Weir contends that it will assist in keeping school administrators “in line”.

While commending the education ministry for its “progressive thinking” in no longer making it mandatory for male Rastafarian students to cover their dreadlocks, the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network (JYAN) is urging constant vigilance of the grooming policy to ensure that school administrators do not revert to their previous positions.

The group is calling for sanctions to be laid against “rogue” schools.

“JYAN has consistently maintained that this practice unfairly discriminated against both the Rastafari religion and the Afrocentric expression of dreadlocks,” its executive director, Shannique Bowden, said in a statement.

“This policy must go much further than provide guidelines but strict rules of adherence for institutions with stated penalties. The standard in our public education sector must be of respect for diversity in religious, ethno-cultural practices and expressions,” she added.

NPTAJ’s Jacobs shared similar sentiments, telling The Gleaner that this particular clause in the policy “brings a greater credence to the fact that we have come of age”.

However, he cautioned that the “religious ideals” of some schools, especially those that were built by churches, should be respected.

“The policy allows for greater dialogue and there’s a base structure which the school can operate from, but the Government “cannot dictate to schools how a child is supposed to be dressed based off the religious perspective of that school,” he said.

Jacobs said that parents have a greater responsibility in ensuring that the school they send their children to align with their belief systems.

“If you are going to take your child to a school, the best thing to do is to find out what are the rules of this school … ,” he said, adding that the sway various denominations have over the boards of church schools must be respected.

Human-rights activist and Anglican priest Father Sean Major-Campbell lauded the policy as a step in the right direction. However, he wants the rules to “move beyond a religious appeal to a human dignity and cultural rights appeal” beyond language of “school’s discretion” to the language of respect for everyone and, in particular, for African hairstyles.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com