Was This Church Of England School Right To Ban Rastafarian Dreadlocks?

[anotheoldgit]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6161817/Rastafarian-boy-12-wins-discrimination-case-dreadlocks-ban.html

Once more it seems that we have been forced to back down from our rules in English dress code, so as to fit in with other cultures.

[sp1814]

JTH

What youngmafbog is saying is that rules need to be applied across the board, even in instances that are clearly imaginary.

[jackthehat]

Aha!
I think you may well be correct, sp1814.

(Nice to see you back.)

[spathiphyllum]

I think a hair style should not cause this much destruction for a school.

My school use to say if it's natural, it's fine.

I think dread locks are more than natural. It's not like they're died pink. They're also wrapped up instead of hanging about

[BANANASPLITS]

Thank you sp14 I just vaguely remembered it that was all

[AuntLydia]

Dandruff and nits are much easier to treat when your hair is not twisted to dreadlocks. This isn't about how healthy dreadlocks are though. its about if the school was right to ban them. Schools have rules, if you don't like them go somewhere else.

[jackthehat]

/// Schools have rules, if you don't like them go somewhere else. ///

Catchment area and school-choice rules don't always make that easy, though.

[AuntLydia]

Then adhere to the school rules. Not all Rastas wear Dreadlocks and they are not an intrinsic part of the Rasta religion. To me this looks more like some sort of stand by his mother.

[spathiphyllum]

"if you don't like them, go somewhere else"

I do agree with what you say, however not in the instance of schools. Does a kid go and look around which school they would like to attend like university students do? No.. Do they legally HAVE to go? Yes..

I think catholic (and all religious schools) are wrong, especially if they're public schools in areas with a large catchment area or a dense neighbourhood (in the sense there are a lot of people) as it's wrong to "force" or imply religion on the youths.

[AuntLydia]

spath I think you may find that people 'choose' to go to religious schools as they are deemed somehow to be better.
I think all schools should be non denominational .

[sp1814]

AuntLydia

See my post about the maths being ‘off’.

[spathiphyllum]

I'm sure a Rastafarian 12 year old wouldn't choose to go to a catholic school. His parents must have sent him three due to being in the area

[sp1814]

Also - Fulham Boys is not a ‘religious school’.

[spathiphyllum]

13:16 bang on

13:23 an amazing point. This should have been established at induction as he would have had the hair then.

[rowanwitch]

If an intensive care nurse can have dreads and the infection control team were ok about it I don't see what the problem is. Tied back they are functionally very little different to braids and are cleaned by soaking in a shampoo solution which is then squeezed out ensuring they are fully cleaned. This lad by the way was a white lad who had joined the rastafari. The school would only be ok in my mind if they barred all long hair styles therefore treating all pupils alike and that is never going to happen.

[sp1814]

@AOG 13:34 - thank you.

[anotheoldgit]

jack-the-hat

/// Hypothetical, "what if it had been.....?" questions (especially when trying to intoduce tactics regarding muslims) only result in us ending up in the usual conversational cul-de-sac with exactly the same contibutors making exactly the same points as we have seen countless times before. ///

What about those who use diversionary tactics such as "what about white criminals" or "what about Roman Catholic child molesters"?

Or even attack the messenger rather that address the subject?

[jackthehat]

Yes, AOG.
Which is precisely why it's always best to try to stick to the topic as raised in the OP.

[ToraToraTora]

auntlydia: "The young man looks very smart from the front but those dreadlocks look filthy from the back. They can't be healthy surely, they look full of dandruff. I feel sorry for the child, I hope he hasn't been made to have these dreadlocks. " - good point, gawd knows what's living in there and yes probably the kid himself is being used by attention seeking parents to get their 15mins. Disgusting in all senses of the word.

[mccfluff]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-left-furious-after-son-13238419

[hereIam]

Yes the school was right to ban - their rules.